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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24975295">Journey To Agartha: Act 2</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/PiquantDino/pseuds/PiquantDino'>PiquantDino</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>DuckTales, DuckTales (Cartoon 2017)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Action/Adventure, Anarchy, Blood and Gore, Dictators, Disney, Duckburg, Ducktales 2017 - Freeform, Explicit Language, F/M, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Journey to Agartha, Major Character Injury, Mild Gore, Non-Explicit Sex, Original Character Death(s), Romance, Violence, ducktales - Freeform, ducktales2017</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 01:07:11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>36</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>130,321</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24975295</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/PiquantDino/pseuds/PiquantDino</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>When Duckburg falls into an tyrannical dictatorship, the worst "heroes" imaginable are forced to the task of placing everything back in order. (Illustrated Fanfiction!)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Gyro Gearloose/Original Female Character(s), Mark Beaks/Original Female Character(s), Steelbeak/Original Female Character(s)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chaos Is FAR From Over</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Welcome to Act 2 of "Journey to Agartha". If you haven't read Act 1, I recommend reading that first. Or you can just read this anyway. I can't stop you.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  
</p><p>Glomgold sat in his mayoral quarters, smirking like the little devil he was. Turns out he couldn't have the power he wanted as mayor… but he could have the power he craved as something else.</p><p>He sat at his cocobolo desk, typing in on Waddle search "How to become a dictator".</p><p>"7 Steps to Becoming a Dictator: Psychology Today" the article read. That's the one he clicked on obviously. He chuckled to himself. "Watch out, Scrooogieeeeeee."</p><p>Step 1: Expand your power base through nepotism and corruption.</p><p>"WOT?!" Glomgold didn't know what nepotism was or how to corrupt a city. He continued reading hoping it would give more information like a "for dummies" book.</p><p>He continued reading, nepotism was never described in the article so whatever, that wasn't important, but for corruption an example given was to gather loyal followers. That was it. He would have to get people to be OBSESSED with him. How to do that was obvious. Start a cult. Duh.</p><p>He went to Waddle search again and typed in "How to start a cult" when suddenly a light knock could be heard from the door.</p><p>"OY, I'M BUSY! LEAVE ME ALONE, BOOB!" He yelled to what he assumed was his advisor, Bob, on the other side.</p><p>The door opened anyway and Glomgold groaned. "WOT DID I JUST SAY? I'M BUSY LOOKING UP HOW TO START A CULT!" He finally put enough bodyweight to lift his head up to see who dared to oppose his orders.</p><p>"Uncle Glomgold? I'm back." Ellie smiled, approaching his desk. Thankfully it was just her and Mark was absent, saving Glomgold from suffering too much.</p><p>"Oh… it's my uncool robo-niece again… Look now isn't really a good time can you just, I dunno… leave?" He made a 'shoo' gesture at her.</p><p>She frowned, not knowing what to say to that. "I just figured you would be happy to know I was alive." She said in a whisper. She had seen him pissed off before and didn't want to push it too much.</p><p>"Well, I'm not so piss off!" He slammed a fist on his desk and Ellie flinched, taking a step back to put more distance between them.</p><p>"That's okay, I understand." She mustered up enough courage to give an understanding smile. "I just- I was built to help you win the election and you've done that so I can help you around the office now, can't I?"</p><p>"I don't need YOU," Glomgold pointed his stubby index finger at Ellie. "I HAVE BOB NOW AND BOB DOESN'T TALK TO ME WHEN I'M WORKING TO START A CULT!"</p><p>"But what about everything that happened in Agartha? Did that mean nothing to you? I thought you viewed me as an actual niece." When he didn't respond she continued, desperate. "I can help you take down Scrooge McDuck. He's still around, isn't he?"</p><p>He scoffed. "Like you're any help. I am planning on becoming DICTATOR of Duckburg! If anyone is going to take down Scrooge McDuck, it's me, FLINTHEART GLOMGOLD!"</p><p>Ellie looked down at the floor. "Um, okay. I'll just leave then." She stood her ground, hoping he would say something reassuring or comforting, but he didn't. She sighed and left the room, closing the door behind her. She felt something she hadn't felt before, nor could she describe it. She leaned against the wall and sat down, hugging her knees.</p><p>"What am I going to do now?" She muttered.</p><p>Suddenly her phone rang. A brand new Iphone Mark had given her as a "congrats you're not dead" gift. Of course it was Mark calling since she didn't have anyone else's numbers.</p><p>She answered. "Hello?" She sniffled, despite not being able to actually cry.</p><p>Mark didn't pick up on the fact she was distressed. "#Yo. Since you're alive and stuff, you want to go on a double date with Gloria and her mysterious love interest?"</p><p>Ellie hugged herself tighter. "What's a double date?"<br/>
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>Scrooge sipped his evening tea, listening to his lovely bagpipe music he did every night.</p><p>His face was still a bit swollen from the beating he had taken a few weeks ago from Della. Huey still hadn't recovered and Della had started taking him to Donald's old therapist. Scrooge hoped he was making progress but he doubted it. Turned out Huey was a bit of a pussy. He definitely wasn't Scrooge's favorite nephew anymore. While he was finishing up his tea he began to figure out which of his nephews is his new favorite. He soon decided that it would be Louie. And speak of the devil...</p><p>"Yo, Uncle Scrooge! You're never gonna guess what just happened!" Louie called out. He was holding his phone out and stood next to Scrooge to show him his screen.</p><p>"Wot is it?"</p><p>"It's Glomgold's OFFICIAL Twitter account! He finally made one!"</p><p>Scrooge rolled his eyes. Good thing he had tea for this tea. "And I should care because…" He gestured for his green ass nephew to continue.</p><p>"But look what he has as his job title!" He pointed with his other hand to show Scrooge. It read "Future Dictator of Duckburg!"</p><p>"Oh curse me bagpipes." He put down his tea, laying a hand over his head.</p><p>"Uhhh. I thought you always cursed your kilts?"</p><p>"Shut up, Louie." Looks like no one could say "shut up, Launchpad." anymore. How sad. "Is that all? Glomgold is no threat so don't worry, lad."</p><p>"Nah. I just thought it was funny as fuck!"</p><p>"Louie…" He warned.</p><p>"Check it." He held up his phone again. "He said he's a God and is starting a new religion. I'm totally going to the first service."<br/>
</p><p>"Oh, you most certainly are NOT!"</p><p>"YEET!" Louie, as he just said, yeeted the fuck out.</p><p>Scrooge sighed again "Looks like my new favorite is… what's his na- oh right, Dewey."<br/>
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>Gyro sat across from Gloria at his favorite, five star restaurant, Olive Garden. He adjusted his bowtie before clearing his throat and turned to his date awkwardly. He stirred his wine as anxiety built up inside him. "So, uh, when are your 'friends' showing up?" He tried to contain his sass but it was hard when knowing one of said friends was Mark fucking Beaks.</p><p>Gloria checked her phone for any new messages from Mark. Nothing. "I'm not sure… I guess we got stood up." She laughed hoping to get Gyro to loosen up and chill the fuck out.</p><p>"WHAT'S UP BITCHESSSSSS! PEW PEW PEW!" Mark slid into the booth like he did in Ellie's DMs next to Gyro. "Ew, it's, like, you."</p><p>"The pleasure is all mine." Gyro snapped back.</p><p>"Wait do you two know each other or something?"</p><p>Mark groaned, crossing his arms. "Yeah, this asshole stole MY invention!"</p><p>"YOUR INVENTION?! HA! NO! Fenton was dumb enough to post it online and you merely STOLE it and passed it as your own!"</p><p>Mark slapped the wine out of Gyro's hand. It spilled out of the cup and onto his white blouse. "You're just jealous not all my inventions turn evil!"</p><p>"THIS WAS FROM BANANA REPUBLIC YOU SWINE!"</p><p>The pigs next to their table turned around after hearing the offensive slur and gave a dirty look to the chicken scientist who was too busy cursing Mark out.</p><p>"Ugh… commoner shopping chains… I'm doing you a FAVOR by spilling wine on it!"</p><p>"Okay both of you! Stop it! You're both acting like children!" She yelled, before changing the subject. "Mark, where the FUCK is Ellie?!"</p><p>He laughed, ignoring Gyro who was still fuming beside him. "Oh yeah, she'll be here in a little bit! She was...visiting the mayor." The last part of the sentence was whispered like the mere mention of Glomgold would bring a curse upon him. His existence was already a curse but that's beside the point.</p><p>Again, for plot, Ellie approached the table. Her gait was a bit shaky after her confrontation with her uncle and she hoped no one would notice as she sat politely next to Gloria. "Hi, Gloria. It's nice to see you again after I died." She smiled.</p><p>"Ellie! Hi!" Gloria gave her a hug. "Are you okay, bitch?" Something seemed a bit off and Gloria wasn't sure if it was just because she was newly recreated or if something else happened.<br/>
</p><p>Ellie released Gloria from the hug and laughed nervously. "Yes. I'm fine." Before Gloria could respond to that obvious lie, Ellie turned to Gyro. "Hi, I'm Ellie." She reached out her hand to greet him. "I'm not sure if you noticed, but you have a stain on your shirt."</p><p>Gyro, in what seemed like in his mind against his will, shook Ellie's hand before saying "Yes I'm aware."</p><p>Mark laughed while he continued to text his internet friends about how awful this double date was going and also giving updates in his "Anti-Gyro Groupchat".</p><p>"Hello," A nice looking waitress approached the table, pulling out her notepad. "I'm Jessica and I'll be your waitress today. Have you all decided on what you would like to eat?"</p><p>Gyro opened his mouth before Mark cut him off. "YESSSS! I'M STARVING!" He screamed, still looking at his phone. " Just give me whatever is the most Instagram worthy! That may be a challenge given the state of this place but try your best. K THANKKKKSSSS!"</p><p>This time Gyro cut Gloria off. "And I'll have another cup of your finest red wine, along with your famous house salad without the croutons. I'm gluten-free." He smirked, laying a hand on his chest like he was complimenting himself.</p><p>"Oh my goooooooood! Gyro, you only eat Gluten-free food?! God, the groupchat is going to LOVE that" Mark laughed to himself again before typing.</p><p>"What groupchat?!"</p><p>"Oh, it's an anti-Gyro group chat. You're not invited."</p><p>Both Gloria's and Ellie's phones went off as Mark sent his next complaint into the groupchat.</p><p>Gloria felt caught red-handed. "Listen I can explain. I joined the group chat when I was still pissed at you from the center of the earth." Gyro scoffed and Gloria ignored his curses. "So this may sound crazy" Gloria started talking to the waitress who at this point just wanted to leave and get out of that minimum wage job. "Could I just have all of the free breadsticks? Like, as much as you are allowed to give me. Just pile them on! Thank you!" Gloria nudged Ellie to let her know that it was her turn to speak next.</p><p>"Hello, Jessica." Ellie started. Her monotone voice convinced Jessica that she would quit after today. "I will pass. My body is incapable of digesting food. But I would like a kids menu with crayons, please. I recently discovered I enjoy the activity of coloring as of this morning." She paused before turning back to the waitress. "It would be great if you had motor oil."</p><p>"Ummm…no we don't have that." She clumsily backed up. "Looks like I have to go to another table. I'll make sure your food, and kids menu, are out shortly." She hurried away, and no she didn't head to another table and went straight to the kitchen. Homie needed a breather.</p><p>Mark made another comment about commoners to himself as he finished up his latest twitter update.</p><p>"Excuse me, Eleanor." Gyro commented, not knowing Ellie wasn't a nickname because he figured that was too stupid to be her actual name. "I couldn't help but notice that you said your body was incapable of digesting food. Is that correct?"</p><p>The waitress quickly came back only to drop off Gloria's several breadsticks before leaving without any word. "Oh, rad!" Gloria started eating a breadstick, watching Ellie and Gyro talk.</p><p>"You did hear that correctly, Dr. Gearloose."</p><p>Gyro nodded, realizing that she was a robot because there was no other way Mark could manage to get a date. "Okay, so you must be evil."</p><p>Gloria shot him a look "Gyro!"</p><p>"What?! There is NO WAY a fully functioning robot can NOT be evil!"</p><p>"It's okay, Gloria." She smiled before turning back to Gyro. "I am indeed evil. I plan on disposing of Scrooge McDuck."</p><p>Everyone at the table fell silent. "You're doing what now?" Gloria was the first to speak up. Even Mark was surprised but nothing really fazed him like that anymore.</p><p>"My Uncle said I was of no use to him anymore so I decided my new purpose would be to kill Scrooge McDuck on his behalf."</p><p>Gyro gestured to Ellie with a dramatic flare "You see what I mean? EVIL!"</p><p>"Ellie, dude, you can't kill Scrooge! That's horrible!" Gloria was pretty disturbed but she kept eating her breadsticks anyways.</p><p>Mark shrugged, taking a sip of his champaign that he brought with him. Olive Garden didn't have high quality alcohol. He wasn't low class like Gyro and Gloria. "I don't see the issue with that. I'll make #killscrooge a thing." He pulled up his twitter again.</p><p>"Thank you, Mark." Ellie ignored the looks she had gotten from both Gloria and Gyro and started a separate conversation with her date.</p><p>"So, ummm…" Gyro turned to his "date" as well. "You invited them here because?"</p><p>Gloria laid her head on her hand in embarrassment "God, I am SO sorry, Gyro! I had no idea that any of this would happen."</p><p>He sighed, looking down at his stained shirt. "It's fine. This shirt was old anyway." He looked back at Gloria and smiled as best as he could. He didn't do that often so it looked unnatural. "How about we change the subject?"</p><p>"Well, how about we sort of change the subject! We can talk about our hatred for Mark Beaks. Man do I have stories. I was stuck with that asshole in prison!"</p><p>Gyro laughed, before covering his mouth. Maybe her being stuck in prison was still a sensitive subject since he got beat up for it not too long ago. "Oh god I could never…"</p><p>"I know, right?! But the best part about that whole experience was that I had these HUGE prison guys help me beat the living shit out of him in front of the whole cafeteria! That bitch will never recover from the lost pride." Gloria laughed, remembering how fun it was to see Mark so afraid while in prison.</p><p>"I wish I could've seen that!" Gyro, for once, showed emotion and excitement. Damn, dude had something in him. "He hired a scientist to break into my lab once who locked me a closet and then he proceeded to break in as well and turn into a hulk of some sort. The whole thing was an absolute mess." He snarled.</p><p>Gloria gasped at the new tea that was just thrown her way. "Oh my god, no way! What a prick!" She laughed again.</p><p>Gyro blushed. Her laugh was so cute owo. "I never thought I would meet someone who hated that man as much as me." He shut his trap realizing how intimate he just sounded and pointed to her breadsticks next. "Do you- do you mind if I have one while I wait for my food?"</p><p>Gloria was about to hand him one before she stopped herself. "Wait aren't you gluten-free though?"</p><p>He crossed his arms. Maybe Gloria was the type to like bad boys. He smirked, confidently. "I don't always follow the rules."</p><p>Gloria laughed again "Ohhhhhh I see. Yeah, you can have one."</p><p>He nodded in a "thank you" sort of manner and reached for one...the same one Gloria had reached for. He almost died when his hand laid on top of hers. His brain stopped working and he didn't dare move, not knowing what to do. If he kept it there then he would be a creep. If he flinched away then he would come off as offensive and/or rude. He looked up at her, their orbs met. "Um…." His cheeks heated up.</p><p>Gloria started to blush too, also not wanting to move her hand away. She quickly composed herself to try and cover up the fact that her heart was racing as well. "Woahhhh Gyro, I think we are moving too fast don't you think?" She laughed to let him know that she was only kidding.</p><p>"Ummmm…" Goddamnit, he didn't know what to say. "Um, yeah. Haha!" His heart was going a mile a minute. He now also had to start to worry about not only Gloria but his health as well. "Guess I should slow things down…" He attempted a laugh but it came out as an awkward whimper. Their hands were still touching throughout all of this.</p><p>"Nah it's fine." Gloria used her other hand to give Gyro a breadstick finally, while using her other one to take his hand on top of her into her own. She had no idea why she suddenly felt this way. It couldn't have just been from them both disliking Mark! But they are both pretty sassy and bitter so yeah maybe.</p><p>Gyro froze. A girl just… willingly touched his hand. Oh man, they were moving fast. He started stuttering. "I- uh- I… thanks…"</p><p>"Thanks for holding your hand?"</p><p>"...yeah."</p><p>If this happened sooner Gloria would've just laughed at his stupid ass but she suddenly didn't want to be so rude to him anymore? What is the deal?! She couldn't stop smiling "You're welcome!"</p><p>Ellie was twiddling her thumbs as she looked down at her lap. "...and then he just kicked me out."</p><p>"Ugh! He's so annoying! Family is literally the worst." Mark was paying attention but he would occasionally look at his phone every few seconds. Ellie knew Mark enough for her not to be offended by it. That's just who he was.</p><p>"That's why I need to kill Scrooge. I need to earn his respect somehow."</p><p>"I meannnnnnn… That's pretty extreme. Murder and all. But I don't really have any shits to give over him plus you're my girlfriend so I'll support you. #feminist!" He put his phone down on the table long enough to make a heart symbol with his hands before picking his phone back up.</p><p>"Thank you. That's much appreciated." She smiled.</p><p>"Anytime, E!" He left the table and crouched next to Ellie to take a quick selfie together. He made sure that his fat head covered Gloria and Gyro from the shot. He sat back down and showed Ellie the photo of them.</p><p>"Aw. We look nice. I enjoy the fact you used your head to cover Gyro's ugly face." Ellie had no beef with Gyro, but she was in the anti-Gyro group chat and she had to support Mark.</p><p>Mark laughed while he started to add little hearts to the image. "RIGHT?! Oh and by the way, your new outfit is suppppper HAWT! Go me for having a personal fashion designer!" He gave himself a high five.</p><p>The outfit was similar to her past one, but instead of a navy cardigan, it was a navy button up shirt with yellow dots and a black skirt. UwU. Kawaii.</p><p>Her circuits warmed, since she couldn't blush and all. Although they were a "thing", they didn't get romantic often. She had only given him a kiss on the cheek once and that was about it. But they were on a date and he was flirting with her, she thought (it was hard to tell based on his obnoxious personality), so she figured she should flirt back if that's what they were doing. "I like the direction the swoop of your hair goes."</p><p>Mark turned on the camera on his phone to admire himself. "I know right?! No products! I am on a product free challenge which is popular on twitter for the month." He gave Ellie his phone so she was looking at a reflection of herself. "You're lookin' cute too! See?!" He pointed to the screen as if she couldn't already tell.</p><p>"I am a robot so my design is naturally perfect compared to the average organic body so I am well aware, but thank you anyway." She smiled, handing his phone back.</p><p>"RIGHT?!" He really needed to stop saying that all the time. Duck Jesus. "Kudos for me for making such a cute robot girlfriend!"</p><p>Ellie didn't know what to do next so she looked over at Gloria and Gyro to see what they were doing. They were on a date as well so she figured they would be doing something romantic, and indeed they were. Maybe? They were holding hands in a very weird way.</p><p>She took note of that and grabbed Mark's hand out of nowhere without saying anything.</p><p>"Oh do I have something on my hand? Do I need to buy more hand moisturizer?" He watched both of their hands, completely oblivious to what they were doing.</p><p>"No. They have a healthy amount of moisture, I'm just holding it because we're on a date."</p><p>"Cool!" Mark took this as an opportunity to take a photo of their hands for yet another online update. He showed Ellie the photo before hitting 'post'. All of the Mark fangirls who follow him on twitter all collectively cried together.</p><p>Ellie figured that the goal of a date was to specifically hold hands so she just kept his hand in hers. A thought had formed in her head after her "rebirth" that morning and she couldn't get it out of her mind. Since they were holding hands, as romantic as you can get, she concluded now was the time to bring it up. "Mark, I've been meaning to ask you something."</p><p>"Oooooh? New tea? Do Spill!" He put his phone down, expecting to hear some type of drama that you would only see in a reality TV show.</p><p>"I don't have the ability to drink tea." She stated before continuing. "I don't know how to ask this, but you love me, don't you?"</p><p>"Whattttttt?! Uh YEAH! Of course I do! Why do you ask?"</p><p>"Good because I love you too and I want to take our relationship a step further."</p><p>"Oooooohhhh like creating a joint Instagram account!? That would be so cute and we could reach a million followers overnight with all of the cute couple pics we have! Great Idea!"</p><p>"No, that's not what I'm talking about." Ellie squeezed his hand tighter. "I want to have a child with you, Mark."</p><p>Mark was silent for a few moments, waiting for the punchline of a very strange joke. He managed a nervous laugh. "You're joking, right?"</p><p>Ellie took hold of his other hand and squeezed it too. "No, I'm not."</p><p>Now Mark was just flat out confused. "I don't get it… Why do you want to intentionally have a kid?!"</p><p>Mark said this last line a little too loud, making Gyro and Gloria watch the new tea unfold.</p><p>There was a very specific reason she wanted a child that she decided she wasn't going to be mentioned at the moment so instead she brought up the second part of her reasoning to avoid the main one. "Well, I don't have a family anymore because Uncle Glomgold wants nothing to do with me. The only family member I ever had left me so I thought I could start a family with you. You built me so why can't you just build a child too?"</p><p>Gloria and Gyro leaned forward waiting in anticipation.</p><p>Mark sighed. He didn't ever want to tell Ellie about this but now he had no other choice. "Ellie, I already have a kid…"</p><p>Gloria let out a small gasp.</p><p>Letting go of both of his hands, Ellie leaned back in shock. "You… already have a child?"</p><p>He sighed again. "Yeah. He doesn't live with me anymore and I never see him so…"</p><p>Ellie's mouth fell open. "You reproduced with another woman and you didn't tell me?!"</p><p>Gyro and Gloria looked over at each other in pure shock. Gloria had to cover her mouth from laughing at the sheer insanity of this double date.</p><p>Mark blushed. "God, that's kind of a personal question, isn't it?"</p><p>Slamming her hands on the table, Ellie looked at Mark and scowled. "How dare you! You've been lying to me this whole time! What now? Are you going to tell me that you're still married?!"</p><p>Mark held his hands above his face, waving them. "What?! Of course not! I mean- wait- I wasn't- I was never-"</p><p>Before he could manage to stutter out whatever he was trying to say, Ellie slapped him across the face. The sound echoing throughout Olive Garden. The restaurant went silent.</p><p>Mark gasped, holding onto his cheek as he looked back at Ellie in shock.</p><p>"I bet you don't even pay child support!"</p><p>"Well no... because he-"</p><p>Ellie stormed out of the silent Olive Garden, leaving her phone behind.</p><p>As fun as it was to watch Mark suffer, Gloria didn't like the idea of Ellie being out on her own, especially with what just happened. She grabbed Ellie's phone and took off after her.</p><p>"Ellie! Wait up!"</p><p>Ellie was already outside the Olive Garden and wandering around the parking lot, not sure where to go next or what the purpose of a parking lot was for. She noticed Gloria running after her and sighed. "Gloria, please, I- I just want to be alone right now."</p><p>Gloria handed Ellie her phone back. "I know you do but would you like to stay over at my place tonight?"</p><p>Ellie nodded.</p><p>___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>Gloria:</p><p>
  
</p><p> </p><p>Ellie:</p><p>
  
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Glomgold's Silly Little Cult</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Gloria awoke to her phone alarm going off. Megalovania of course. Megalovania on her flip phone. She groaned, rubbing her eyes and sitting up in her sleeping bag. Groggy, she looked over to Ellie staring at her.</p>
<p>"Good morning, Gloria. You seemed to have slept well."</p>
<p>"Ummm, hi?"</p>
<p>The two of them sat on a blanket in the corner of Gyro's lab. An area Gloria had claimed to be her home. She decided on spending the night there because of how much intern work she needed to make up due to her "unpaid vacation" time in Agartha. Her internship was unpaid too but whatever.</p>
<p>They hadn't talked about the events that had happened the previous night. Ellie was too upset to talk about it so she simply just watched Gloria work until she went to bed. Then Ellie proceeded to watch her sleep too.</p>
<p>Gloria got up to start her day with Ellie following behind her like a lost puppy. "Hey, are you feeling any better? It's okay if you don't want to talk about it."</p>
<p>"No, it's alright. I need to let it out of my system. Literally." Ellie said, deadpanned. "I am still rather upset."</p>
<p>Gloria sat at her really shitty desk in the far corner of the lab before pulling another chair to the side for Ellie to sit down and rant while she started to work. "Lay it on me, sis."</p>
<p>"I don't understand how Mark could have reproduced with another woman and not have told me."</p>
<p>Gloria shook her head. "Men are garbage."</p>
<p>"Garbage is wasted or spoiled food and other rubbish from a kitchen household so I believe you have mixed up your vocabulary." Ellie finally sat down in the seat her friend had offered. "I'm upset, but I shouldn't have slapped him and stormed off." She slammed her head on the desk and laid there because she didn't know how to express her emotions otherwise. "This is the second substantial fight we've been in and I don't know what to do. Maybe we aren't meant to be together, but I have nowhere to go if I don't go running back. My Uncle wants nothing to do with me since he achieved his goal of becoming Mayor of Duckburg."</p>
<p>"Honestly, I think he deserved that slap. He should've told you that he had a kid a LONG time ago and you have every right to be pissed off at him! Like, there is no way you can just keep something like that a secret! Dumbass… But seriously, if you need to stay here for a few more nights you're more than welcome to!"</p>
<p>Ellie thought about her words for a second. The advice Gloria had given wasn't helpful, but that was expected since organics had quite a low IQ. It couldn't be helped she was naturally stupid. "But what am I supposed to do after?" She gave her the benefit of the doubt and hoped she had something interesting to give thought.</p>
<p>She shrugged. "Whatever you want to do, I guess. You have your own mind and conscience so the world is your oyster."</p>
<p>"I don't know what that means, but I have to say you give bad advice and did not help at all."</p>
<p>"Yeah I am not the best at giving advice… but you know who is? Gyro! Aw man he knows Mark SOOOO well! Let's go bother him and see if he can help you." Gloria sat up and started going over to where Gyro was working. He was in an entire different section of the lab.</p>
<p>"Heyyyyyyyyy Gyro!" Gloria called, giving him a slap on the back of the head. "Quick question, why the fuck is the lab underwater anyways? Seems pretty stupid considering we are working with a lot of electrcity."</p>
<p>He sighed, rubbing the back of his head and turning around. "Good morning to you too. And to answer your question, having a lab underwater makes it 32.6% more difficult for enemies to access."</p>
<p>"That's a pretty low number if you ask me but anyways Ellie here wants to talk to you about something."</p>
<p>He looked behind her, laying eyes on the robot who was just… scowling at him. He pinched in between his eyes. "Tell me why you brought her here when she is working for the enemy."</p>
<p>"Okay…" Gloria made a praying gesture with her hands in annoyance "do you NOT fucking remember what happened last night? Like, goddamn."</p>
<p>"You mean when you left me with Mark? Yes. I do remember." Gyro snapped, turning back around in his chair to get back to work. "Our date was fine otherwise." He added, just so he wasn't a complete asshole.</p>
<p>"Umm no I was referring to Ellie and how Mark LITERALLY HAS A CHILD!"</p>
<p>"Gloria said that you are the best to offer advice, despite the fact I despise you." Ellie stepped forward, standing next to his desk to grab his attention.</p>
<p>"So? I thought everyone knew about that thing."</p>
<p>"YOU KNEW?!" Gloria slapped the back of his head again.</p>
<p>"OW!" He groaned, turning his chair so he could see both Gloria and Ellie at the same time. "Yes, I knew." Gyro paused… not sure what to say next. "Ummm… his son is a robot and he built him… yeah. He did." He started sweating nervously but both Ellie and Gloria didn't seem to notice. He was usually sweaty anyways. He didn't want Gloria to know about his past yet, even if him and Boyd were on good terms. In fact, he never wanted to bring it up to her. Ever.</p>
<p>"Wait so his kid... is a robot?"</p>
<p>"Duh. You think that twig of a man has been with an actual woman before? Please."</p>
<p>"Oh shit you right." Gloria laughed at Mark's expense. It's the only thing that truly gives her joy.</p>
<p>During the entire chat, Ellie had covered her mouth with one of her hands in shock. "...so Mark is not tainted by sexual desire and did not use his male genes to create another life? Instead it is another android like me?"</p>
<p>Gyro rolled his eyes. "I don't know how to respond because of how strangely you worded that." He muttered. "But yes, his son is a robot. I dunno where it is. He probably just threw it away."</p>
<p>"See! What did I tell ya, Ellie? Men are trash!"</p>
<p>Ellie was too upset to correct Gloria's vocabulary. She turned and walked toward the exit of Gyro's quarters. At the door, she turned around in shame. "I have forgotten where the exit of the premises is."</p>
<p>Gloria was now hella confused. "Wait, where are you going?"</p>
<p>Gyro figured that he wasn't part of the conversation anymore, nor did he really care, so he turned around and went back to work.</p>
<p>"To my Uncle. I need to try to reason with him to take me in again. I have no direction otherwise. Having commands to follow is a priority for me."</p>
<p>Gloria found that ironic due to their conversation in Agartha a week or so back. Ellie had insisted she wasn't some mindless robot that followed commands, but now wasn't the time to question her reasoning or thought process. "Why do you want to even be around that asshole?"</p>
<p>"I don't have anywhere else to turn." She said. "Think about it, Gloria. You said the world is my oyster, which I still don't understand, but I am not capable of doing anything. I don't have a Social Security card, I'm not a legal citizen, therefore I cannot get a job and make money or have a life of my own."</p>
<p>"But it's Glomgold…" She made a disgusted face.</p>
<p>Ellie ignored her. "He has a speech today. I assume I will be able to talk to him afterward. I just have to attempt to reason with him again and then once I kill Scrooge McDuck he'll love me unconditionally. I did the math and it is the best course of action as of now."</p>
<p>"Wh- okay no could you please NOT kill Scrooge? If you really want to go back to your uncle so badly then I won't stop you but you should really come up with a better hobby."</p>
<p>"No, I have made up my mind. I am going to murder Mr. McDuck." She turned around. "Do you mind leading me out of the building? You can come with me to the speech if you desire."</p>
<p>Gloria thought about it for a moment before shrugging. "It'll be funny to hear Glomgold yelling at people and getting all sweaty… Yeah I got nothing else better to do."</p>
<p>Gyro turned around in his chair, once again, crossing his arms. "Nothing else better to do, excuse me?" He scolded. But this was his love interest owo so he was lowkey going to let it slide. "If you want to pull more all-nighters to make up for your "vacation days" that's fine by me." Before he went back to work, he turned to Ellie. "And as for you, you should know I will be telling Scrooge McDuck about your plans."</p>
<p>Ellie smiled and it was more unsettling than usual, menacing if you will. "Good. He'll need the warning."</p>
<p>It was at that moment Gloria realized she was "friends" with a sort of maniac to put it simply. Maybe she should tread lightly.</p>
<p>(A/N: we wrote almost the ENTIRE act before Astro-Boyd came out. We were under the impression Mark built Boyd. We went back and tried to edit it as best as we could at certain points but there was too much to go back to correct. I hope that's understandable to you all.)<br/>__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________</p>
<p>"BOW BEFORE ME MY LOYAL SUBJECTS!" Glomgold rose his fist in the air as he screamed a little too closely into his mic. He stood at a podium with his mascot, the fish Glommy, sitting on the edge.</p>
<p>Louie was the only one in the crowd who began to sit on the ground and start bowing. Della quickly yanked him up by his hoodie to have him stand up again. He looked up at her and smiled devilishly. "I told ya this was gonna be good. You can't make this shit up." He pointed a thumb toward Mayor Glomgold.</p>
<p>"It is but you can't start bowing before all the tyranny and mass hysteria! You're totally going about this wrong way… Also." Della dropped her son's hoodie and slapped the back of his head.</p>
<p>"OW!"</p>
<p>"Watch your FUCKING language in front of our mayor!"</p>
<p>Glomgold started banging his podium in excitement. His assistant, who he called Bob/Boob, had to catch his mascot fish as it and the bowl flew off the stand.</p>
<p>"I, FLINTHEART GLOMGOLD, AM YOUR NEW GOD! I HAVE BEEN ELECTED BY THE UNIVERSES' WILL! FOLLOW IN MY STEPS AND DUCKBURG WILL BECOME THE ULTIMATE THREAT TO ENEMY TERRITORIES LIKE CINCINNATI!"</p>
<p>The crowd chattered among themselves, skeptical of his words. Reporters began raising their hands like crazy.</p>
<p>"YOO!" He pointed to a child who wasn't raising their hand. "ASK ME A QUESTION!"</p>
<p>"Ummm…" They grasped their teddy bear, looking at their mother for support who just shrugged in response. The kid turned back to Glomgold. "...what will you do about the Covid-19 outbreak?"</p>
<p>"THE WOT?!"</p>
<p>A distant cough could be heard within the crowd.</p>
<p>A reporter went into detail on what the intelligent 4 year old had asked. "There is an epidemic in the country that is spreading at a rapid pace. There are currently seven cases in Duckburg. What will you do to prevent the outbreak and protect the citizens?" He held up his mic in an attempt to pick up Glomgold's voice. The mic wasn't needed since he yelled everything so the cameraman quickly snatched it away.</p>
<p>Glomgold still had no idea what that meant. "I AM GOD SO I WILL CURE IT WITH ME MIND!"</p>
<p>There was more chattering amongst the crowd before another news reporter spoke up.</p>
<p>"What proof do you have that you are a God? Care to demonstrate?"</p>
<p>"Erm...yes." He turned to Bob, giving him an obvious wink.</p>
<p>This "Bob" dude pressed a button behind his back. Fireworks shot out from Glomgold's podium. Glomgold in turn raised his hands in the air as if he was controlling the sparks. "RISE MEH BABIES! RISEEEEE!"</p>
<p>The crowd ooohed and ahhhed at the display of god-like powers.</p>
<p>"OUR SAVIOR HAS COME!" A random citizen screamed, bowing on her knees.</p>
<p>More and more people started to fall to their knees to bow, including Louie again.</p>
<p>"The fuck you doing, son?" Della snapped. "You buying this? I raised you better."</p>
<p>"You didn't raise me at all."</p>
<p>Della smacked Louie's head again before bowing down beside him. "Fine. As your loving mother I will support your religion."</p>
<p>"OW! But thanks, mom!" On the ground, Louie started to tweet about the situation. Posting fanart and edits of Glomgold that people had drawn in the past 5 seconds. Some art had angel wings, others had halos, and some were nude and lowkey sexy, showing their God's full build. "Mom. I'm totally going to all the services. This is the best thing that's ever happened."</p>
<p>"That's cool with me, just be home before dinner or I'll beat the shit out of you for coming home past curfew."</p>
<p>The crowd had begun to chant "GLOMGOLD" So Louie and Della joined in because it was funny. The rest of the crowd seemed to be taking it seriously which only amused Louie more. Man, Uncle Scrooge was going to LOVE this.</p>
<p>"AS GOD…" Glomgold stopped, putting a finger to his chin. He hadn't thought this far ahead. "I COMMAND EVERY CITIZEN TO ATTEND ALL OF MY SPEECHES! ANYONE WHO IS ABSENT WILL BE PUT TO DEATH! GOT IT?!"</p>
<p>The crowd, though fearful and now pissing themselves, cheered. "SAVE US, GOD! SAVE US FROM THE SPREADING DISEASE!"</p>
<p>"ALL HAIL GLOMGOLD!"</p>
<p>"I LOVE YOU, MAYOR GOD!"</p>
<p>"YEET!" Louie added out of nowhere as he snapped a photo of the crowd.</p>
<p>Glomgold started waving because that's what he saw Kim Duck Un do on television when citizens praised him. "FIRST THING THAT MUST BE DONE TO- UH- PROTECT THE CITY FROM THE BEER, CORONA, IS EVERYONE MUST WHERE AUTHORIZED UNIFORMS BY ME, GOD! IF NOT YOU WILL ALSO DIE!" Man, this cult thing seemed to be going pretty well for him so far. "EXECUTIONS WILL BE HELD ON SUNDAYS! ALL CITIZENS MUST ATTEND!" He thought to himself again. "AND YOU WILL NOW REFER TO ME AS GODGOLD! CHANT MY NAME BEFORE DINNER OR YOU WILL BE BOUND TO HELL!" He continued to spout our rules from his ass. He would make sure all went well for a few days before taking action against the McDuck family. Sure, he wanted to kick them out of town, but seeing them publicly executed sounded way more fun now.</p>
<p>Godgold was stupid, yes, but he knew he had to observe his followers and clarify they were 100% on his side.</p>
<p>"THAT IS ALL! LEAVE YOU COMMONER SCUM!"</p>
<p>All of his followers began to scatter like a bunch of clueless ants. Louie and Della got up and brushed off their knees. "Man that was fun, huh Del?"</p>
<p>There was another slap on the head. "Don't call your mom, Del, fuckface." She laughed. Louie laughed too despite being hit again. But it was all in good fun. Family goals. "Sounds like Duckburg is going to become the new North Korea. Sound like a fun adventure to you?"</p>
<p>Louie smiled. "I'm Godgold's number 1 follower."</p>
<p>Della and Louie started walking back to the mansion together while Louie started to create a GodGold fan account on Instagram.</p>
<p>On the other side of the town square, still standing there, was Gloria and Ellie. Ellie was watching her Uncle with built anxiety, trying to decide when was the right time to approach him. She usually wouldn't be nervous, even if he did break her circuits the other day (metaphorically), but the Bob dude next to him was horrifying and would probably break her face in with his steel beak. He looked more like a bodyguard than an assistant.</p>
<p>"I am proud of my Uncle." Ellie decided to say to Gloria, trying to start a conversation while she waited patiently.</p>
<p>"What the fuck just happened? Ellie, I think your uncle just started a cult!"</p>
<p>"Cult?" Ellie searched her data. "A system of religious devotion directed toward a particular figure." She said the definition outloud. "Yes, I do believe your claim is accurate. Isn't this great?"</p>
<p>"NO! Are you still going to talk to him after all that?!"</p>
<p>"Of course. Why wouldn't I? He seems to care very much for his citizens now, compared to yesterday, and I am one of his citizens… without a Social Security card." The last part was whispered under her breath. "I'm confident he may change his mind about letting me stay with him. Especially if he knows that I now despise Mark as well." Despise wasn't the right term to use, specifically about a past lover she still had feelings for, even if she was pissed. But whatever.</p>
<p>Gloria held her hands up to her face like she was surrendering. "Okay, if that's what you wanna do. Keep me updated on your shitshow of a life, okay? Here, give me your phone so I can give you my phone number."<br/>_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________</p>
<p>Glomgold, now back at City Hall (soon to be his palace), chuckled evilly as he shoved his hand in Glommy's tank to pet him. He looked up at Bob. "MUAHAHAHA! TOLD YA IT WOULD WORK, BOOB!"</p>
<p>His assistant rolled his eyes. "For the last time, my name isn't Bob or Boob, it's Steelbeak, idiot!"</p>
<p>"IDIOT!? I'M NOT THE IDIOT, YOU ARE!"</p>
<p>"DON'T IMPLY I'M STUPID!"</p>
<p>Glomgold cleared his throat, turning around to look at his chart that had all the drawings of his master plan. "Aren't you glad you left F.O.W.L? You're with a real villain now." He rubbed his greasy little hands together. "I will rule the world in no time. NO TIME I SAY!"</p>
<p>A soft knock at the door caused Glomgold to stop his constant yelling. "Boob, can you tell whoever is at the door to FUCK OFF!"</p>
<p>"Sure!" Steelbeak did a light jog over to the door before opening it and yelling "FUCK OFF!".<br/></p>
<p>Ellie looked up at him, horrified. "...I'm here to see my Uncle."</p>
<p>He gasped, turning back to his new God who gave him a paycheck. "YOU HAVE A NIECE?! HA! THAT'S RICH!" He let the door open wide enough for Ellie to come in anyways despite Glomgold asking him NOT to do that.</p>
<p>"YOO AGAIN?!"</p>
<p>Ellie approached, wringing her hands together nervously. "Hi Uncle Glomgold- er- Uncle Godgold."</p>
<p>Glomgold groaned dramatically "WOT NOW?! CAN'T YOU SEE THAT I'M VERY BUSY AS A NEW GOD?!"</p>
<p>"I'm sorry. I know I shouldn't have come after… yesterday's conversation, but I have nowhere else to go. Mr. Beaks betrayed my trust."</p>
<p>"God men are trash." Steelbeak said leaning against the wall close to the new god.</p>
<p>"I don't understand why everyone keeps using the term trash when that is not the correct use of the vocabulary." Ellie murmured before turning back to her Uncle, pleading. "Please, Uncle Godgold! I'll help you expand your religion and power, just please take me in."</p>
<p>"UGH- FINE!" He groaned, waving his arms in the air in exasperation. "Holy me, you're pathetic."</p>
<p>Ellie smiled and squealed, leaning over the desk to give him a hug. "Thank you! You won't regret it, I promise!"</p>
<p>"EW! GET THE FUCK OFF ME!" He pushed her off. "You're not my niece anymore, you're like...uh...my servant or slave or something." He shrugged. "My first command is for you to contact," He sighed, not believing he was going to say this. "Mark Beaks. I need a robot army."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Cult Uniforms</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sitting down at her work desk, Gloria sighed. She had pulled an all-nighter again and Gyro's stupid ass told her to redo her research 3 fucking times. What an asshole. A kinda hot asshole but an asshole all the same.</p>
<p>What time was it anyway? She took out her phone. 7:30 AM!? Shit bro, she needed to eat something. Gyro only had gluten free crap which was absolutely disgusting. She should head out to McDonald's and get a big mac. Hell yeah. That sounded good.</p>
<p>Since she was already on her phone, she opened up to the homescreen to check her messages. Still nothing from Ellie. It had been four days and she hadn't contacted Gloria at all. She had no idea where she was. Whether she was with Glomgold, Mark, or on the streets was up in the air. Gloria had called a few times with no answer. Needless to say, she was a bit concerned Ellie was getting involved with a wanna be dictator. And also the fact Ellie had murder plans.</p>
<p>Gloria wasn't going to lie, lately Ellie had been freaking her out. Maybe it was best to stay away from her and let her do her own weird dictator support thing by herself.</p>
<p>Moving on, Gloria stood up and walked over to Gyro's "research room" or whatever he called it. He had showed up at 6:30 with his black coffee, not even bothering to say good morning. "Sup Gyrooooooo!" She called out, walking over to his cranky self.</p>
<p>He huffed. "Good morning, Gloria. What do you want?"</p>
<p>"I just wanted to tell you that you're an asshole and that I'm also going to McDonald's. Does your Gluten-Free self want anything? Maybe a biscuit or some french fries?"</p>
<p>He fake laughed at her joke even though it was most definitely an insult. "No. But can you do me a favor while you're out?"</p>
<p>"No."</p>
<p>"Good. I need you to head over to the McDuck manor to warn Scrooge of Ellie's murder plans. I haven't gotten around to doing that yet because I've been busy upgrading the GizmoDuck suit."</p>
<p>"Wait, you didn't already tell him? Wouldn't that be top priority or something?"</p>
<p>He shrugged, continuing to type codes into his computer that was attached to the Gizmoduck suit. "Not really. Just go do it."</p>
<p>"Aight I will."</p>
<p>Gloria turned to go to her favorite place, McDonald's, before heading over to the manor when a package was thrown her way, hitting her on the back of the head.</p>
<p>"Make sure you wear that or you'll be executed this Sunday. It was mandatory as of yesterday."</p>
<p>Gloria turned back around to pick up the package that fell on the floor and opened it. "This shit is ugly as fuck! What is this, a plaid skirt?"</p>
<p>The mandatory outfit (assigned by Glomgold) for women consisted of a white button down shirt and a red plaid skirt. Red plaid pants for the guys. And most importantly, a pin to wear of their lord and savior, Glomgold, on their chest.</p>
<p>"We got a new dictator now." Gyro mumbled. "But that's old news."</p>
<p>"It's bullshit news if you ask me." Gloria took the package into the bathroom to change before leaving to tell her boss dude that he may die from her friend. Casual Tuesday stuff.<br/>_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________</p>
<p>"What the hell are you wearing?" Scrooge asked Donald as he walked into the dining hall with some good old french toast that was very much burnt.</p>
<p>"It's mandatory now. Glomgold is keeping a list of people who don't wear it outside. You'll get executed if you're seen without it."</p>
<p>Scrooge stared at him, dumfounded. "Lad, I did not understand a word you just said."</p>
<p>
  
</p>
<p>Before Donald could an even bigger fit, Della and her dear children walked in. They were also wearing the uniforms.</p>
<p>"WOT IS GOING ON?!"</p>
<p>Louie shrugged "Kinda like my new fit."</p>
<p>For plot convenience, Everyone's outfit looked the same with the red plaid with the exception of Dewey and Louie who had blue and green plaid respectfully.</p>
<p>Huey went to the corner to rock back and forth. Dude still had PTSD and the new dictator thing didn't help. "I can't do this. I can't do this. I can't do this."</p>
<p>Della ignored him and sat down next to her Uncle. "Meh. Just dictator stuff. I hid your uniform in the mansion somewhere, like a hide n seek game."</p>
<p>He groaned. "Della…" He scolded, before sipping his green tea again. He felt like a weeb today. "Shouldn't we do something about Glomgold's 'dictatorship'?"</p>
<p>Dewey walked over, sitting down as well. "I say we wait a week or two and watch it play out. It's kinda entertaining."</p>
<p>"Yeah, and I want to see the executions this Sunday. I hope Violet gets killed, ahahaha." Louie added while taking pictures of his burnt toast Donald had given him. He was going to post it on Twitter and complain about how lame his Uncle was. "#scrub" was one of the tags.</p>
<p>"EXECUTIONS?!" Huey screamed. He started rocking faster.</p>
<p>"Get your shit together, kid." Della scoffed. "If anyone deserves PTSD, it's ME!" Della pointed to herself with her thumb.</p>
<p>This made Huey start crying again. He used the pages in his Junior Woodchuck Guidebook to dry his eyes.</p>
<p>"Everyone calm down!" Scrooge slammed his fists on the table and stood up. His chair fell back, hitting the carpet. "There is no way Glomgold is going to successfully become a full dictator in time to kill people by Sunday. I bet my first dime he'll get executed by sundown."</p>
<p>"We already got the uniforms, Uncle Scrooge." Donald said.</p>
<p>"I don't know what the fuck you're saying." Scrooge stood on the table just because he could and he wanted to come off as important and powerful during his little speech. "Yes, he did give us uniforms, but that's just going to fuel the public's anger. Let's just wait it out."</p>
<p>Leaning back in her chair, Della raised a brow. "...and if he doesn't get killed?"</p>
<p>"There is no if. He will."</p>
<p>"But IF he doesn't?!"</p>
<p>"Then we're fucked! Calm down everyone, it's fine! Everything is fine!"</p>
<p>Without anyone opening the door for her (cause they were all listening to Scrooge's dumbass speech), Gloria just let herself in and followed the sound of Huey's crying screams and Scrooge's Scottish anger issues. "Heyyyyyy McDuck Clan, it's me, ya boi." Gloria gave a peace sign. "Sorry for coming in unannounced, no one answered the door but anyways, I have to talk to Scrooge, it's pretty important."</p>
<p>"I know about the dictatorship and we have it under control. Sort of. Calm down." He spat, literally. Spit flew right into Louie's eye and he cringed, flinching backward and dropping his fork.</p>
<p>"Oh yeah that sucks but no there's something else to worry about. So you remember Ellie right?"</p>
<p>He shivered, thinking back to what happened in that cell that fateful day (or night?) about a month ago. "The robot who got her head cut off? Yeah I remember."</p>
<p>"S-someone's head was removed during the Agartha adventure?! No one told me that!" Huey screamed again, pulling at his hat and feathers.</p>
<p>Everyone ignored him again while Gloria continued. "Well anyways, to make a long story short, she has beef with Glomgold and now to like "prove herself" or something, she's plotting to kill you… Also Gyro sent me because he was too lazy to let you know sooner." She only mentioned that to throw him under the bus.</p>
<p>"Well bless me goddamn bigpipes…"<br/>_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________</p>
<p>Ellie sat outside of Mark's office, in the "waiting room" if you will. His assignment, to build a robot army, was much too important for her to not approach him in person, as much as she didn't want to. Apparently he was so booked she had to schedule in advance to meet with him, hence why it took a few days. Glomgold screamed at her for the delay a few times but whatever.</p>
<p>The doors finally opened and some fancy business men walked out, as fancy as you can look in the new assigned uniforms. Ellie took that as her que to enter the office. She took a deep breath, metaphorically, and entered his much too large of an office.</p>
<p>Sure enough there was Mark sitting under the giant W on the wall. He was looking at his phone, probably tweeting. "Ummmm, like, it's 8:27 and your appointment is 8:30 so #getout." He snapped.</p>
<p>Ellie approached his desk without saying anything. "It's me, Mark." She said politely despite the fact she wanted to strangle him for getting rid of his own child like he meant nothing to him. But this was a business meeting on behalf of Glomgold, she wasn't going to waste time arguing with him unless necessary.</p>
<p>He shot his head up, almost dropping his phone. "E-Ellie?! Why did you come back, I thought you were pissed at me!" He stood up from his chair in excitement, hoping Ellie was ready to forgive him. She did have a few days to calm down after all.</p>
<p>"I'm strictly here on behalf of Glomgold." There were no emotions given to show that she was happy to see him.</p>
<p>His smile dropped. "Oh…"</p>
<p>"He demands that you build him a robot army for his cause."</p>
<p>Mark was silent for a moment. "Is that the only reason why you're here? Nothing else…?" He trailed off.</p>
<p>Ellie immediately knew an argument was going to start and she really didn't want it to. She was mad, but she didn't want to yell at him again. Her anger had gotten the best of her that night and she was ashamed of it. "Yes. That's the only reason." Hopefully Mark would just hold in whatever he wanted to say and agree to help Glomgold so she could leave.</p>
<p>"I see…" He crossed his arms and sat back down in his chair, not even bothering to look at her anymore. "What do you want?" That last statement came out more rude than he wanted.</p>
<p>Ellie noticed that immediately but didn't retort. "I already told you. Glomgold demands you build him a robot army for his cause." She made sure her voice was monotone, not wanting to make it obvious she was upset.</p>
<p>"Yeah I'm working on it already so there was no reason for you to even come here." That was a lie but he was angry so yeah.</p>
<p>She huffed. It was barely audible to Mark, but he heard it. "I know that you are not. Glomgold was very angry he couldn't get a hold of you."</p>
<p>"Whatever, I don't owe him shit, even if he is our dictator now." That statement could literally have him up on a stake next Sunday.</p>
<p>This conversation was going downhill and fast. Ellie knew that if he didn't agree he would be killed. "... I don't think denying his request is the best course of action."</p>
<p>He sneered and started scrolling through instagram to make it look like he stopped paying attention. "Is that all? I have another appointment in 23 minutes."</p>
<p>"Then that gives you 23 minutes to say whatever you want to say to me." It couldn't be helped that Ellie's tone had a slight bite to it, but she knew Mark wouldn't calm down unless he talked to her about it and she really hated to admit that to herself. However, she was not going to apologize for getting mad at him.</p>
<p>Mark put his phone down and looked at her again. "Oh so that wasn't the only reason why you came here. Got it."</p>
<p>Ellie's circuits warmed, but not because she was 'blushing'. She was really embarrassed now because he was right. "Not originally," She lied. "But you seem upset." Her voice went back to being monotone. Before he responded, she made sure to add something. "Listen. I know now that your son is a robot and I wasn't aware of that. But that doesn't make it okay that you just got rid of him like he was nothing."</p>
<p>Mark sighed and rubbed his face. "It's a bit more complicated than that… I checked in on him and all I know is that he's with a loving couple and they adopted him from under me. He's living a normal life."</p>
<p>"That still doesn't explain the fact why you kept it a secret from me." She said. "It seems to me like you keep a lot of secrets." She was specifically referencing their time in prison together when he told her that they were indeed the "villains".</p>
<p>"I wasn't purposely keeping it a secret! It just never came up and I never see him so it's not really that big of a deal."</p>
<p>"Your son isn't that big of a deal to you?!" Ellie's voice raised at this point.</p>
<p>Mark slammed his hands on the desk. "He's not even my kid! He's not my flesh and blood, he's only a robot!"</p>
<p>Ellie fell silent. "You- how could you- why-" For once she couldn't even form a sentence.</p>
<p>He sighed and raked through his hair. "Okay, I didn't mean it like that…"</p>
<p>"I came here to tell you about Glomgold's request and I did just that." She started to head toward the exit.</p>
<p>"Ellie-"</p>
<p>As her hand was on the door handle, she turned to look at him. "From now on we are simply coworkers under Glomgold. Our relationship is strictly professional. If you need something, contact him, not me." She snapped before slamming the door behind her.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Ducktales - The Soap Opera</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Gyro pulled out the chair for Gloria as she sat down at the white clothed table. The environment was nice, with a dim candle glowing between them. This wasn't just any fancy restaurant, it was Red Lobster, the other nice 5-star restaurant in Duckburg.</p>
<p>"Thank you for being willing to go out with me again despite the last date not going so well toward the end." Gyro twiddled his thumbs as he sat across from Gloria. He still wasn't good at starting date conversations. The only thing he was good at was science and insulting people.</p>
<p>"Yeah of course. Man, that was really crazy though. You may have to start a scene if we are gonna get the same amount of drama like last time."</p>
<p>He chuckled. "Yeah. No offense, but I will never understand why you invited them."</p>
<p>She shrugged. "We went through hell together so I was just trying to be civil? I dunno but don't worry I don't think I'll be asking them for a double date anytime soon."</p>
<p>He coughed, picking up his menu. "...sooooo, do you know what you're gonna get?" Gyro had no idea how to turn this around to be romantic. He wanted to get further than they had last time.</p>
<p>"The usual. Just a bunch of Olive Garden breadsticks."</p>
<p>"But we're at Red Lobster."</p>
<p>"They still have them."</p>
<p>"Ummmm….okay." Yep. That's all he could think of to say. What a guy.</p>
<p>"What about you?" She started drawing on the table despite there not being any table paper. She took the kid's menu crayons from a small child, who cares.</p>
<p>"Oh, a lobster of course. I am a classy man." That sounded like a joke, but Gyro was dead serious as he smirked to himself with pride. As they were speaking, Gyro made sure to grab a waitress' attention to ask for their finest wine. "So, um, I'm sorry I keep our relationship strictly professional in the work environment but that's what needs to be done. But outside you are free to express your feelings toward me."</p>
<p>"I get it dude. No big deal."</p>
<p>Gloria really wasn't helping him start a romantic conversation. He gulped, adjusting his collar. "You look really pretty tonight." He gestured to her mandatory assigned uniform.</p>
<p>Gloria blushed and smiled "Aw thank you! You look great yourself despite the ugly ass plaid pants."</p>
<p>"Thanks…" He looked down at his pants. Despite them living in a new North Korea, he didn't think they were all that bad. "This, um, dictatorship is crazy, right? Haha...ha…"</p>
<p>"I think it's pretty funny. I want to see how far this will go before it caves in on himself. There's no way that this shit is permanent. I give him a month, tops!"</p>
<p>Their wine had arrived and Gyro had started stirring it with his finger. "I honestly don't care. But I fear he'll assign everyone mandatory jobs. No one takes me away from my science."</p>
<p>"Wait wait wait shut the fuck up. You have your finger… in your wine. What the fuck are you doing?" She took a sip of her own wine to demonstrate how a normal fucking person drinks.</p>
<p>He blushed. "I've seen it done in movies…"</p>
<p>"What movie?"</p>
<p>"Megamind, when he's on a date with Roxanne." (that didn't happen but whatever).</p>
<p>"Ahhhhh... Okay carry on then." She swirled her finger in the wine as well for the hell of it.</p>
<p>There was a brief pause before Gloria spoke up again, taking her finger out of her wine glass. "Hey Gyro? Could I ask you something?"</p>
<p>"Of course."</p>
<p>"... Why do you like me? Like, I always insult you, I beat you up, I call you names, but you still like me? Why is that?"</p>
<p>Gyro blushed even harder owo. He hoped with all his might she would never ask that but here they were. "Okay… um…. I kinda like when girls do that to me." He spat out before covering his mouth. "That and you're pretty." He added quickly so he didn't seem like a complete idiot.</p>
<p>She couldn't help but laugh. "Wait… are you serious?"</p>
<p>Gyro started fiddling with his Glomgold pin as he was getting hella nervous. "...yes…"</p>
<p>Gloria was actually starting to like him more so she didn't want to be too harsh on the guy, especially when he couldn't help it. She shrugged "Hey, no judgement! I just stole a kid's crayon sooo…" She gave him a reassuring smile.</p>
<p>He smiled back before scratching his head and looking away. "Well, why do you like me?"</p>
<p>"Oh I have a few reasons! Well first, I like that you gave me an internship so that's cool. I like to beat up simps on my free time and you radiate the most simp levels in all of Duckburg." She paused before adding on to her somewhat insult. "I also think you're really cute and I love that little yellow hat you always wear!"</p>
<p>This time he laid his hand on top of hers on purpose. "Thanks, I appreciate you giving me a chance." He smiled, looking into her orbzzzz.</p>
<p>Man Gloria was tired of all this waiting around so she decided to make the first move. "Hey can we kiss already or what?"</p>
<p>"W-what?!"</p>
<p>She scoffed at his dumbass question and just went ahead and kissed him. How that works with two different kinds of beaks is up to your imagination, kids.</p>
<p>The kiss was surprisingly deep and lasted a few seconds before Gloria finally broke it and leaned back in her chair and smirked to herself.</p>
<p>He covered his mouth in shock. That was his first kiss. OML. "Uhhhhhhh…That was nice."</p>
<p>"Hell yeah it was! You're a pretty good kisser for a nerd."</p>
<p>He laughed. Now his face was a fucking tomato. "Hey, I have another question for you."</p>
<p>She smiled "What?"</p>
<p>"Do you maybe wanna go back to my place after this?"</p>
<p>Gloria was silent for a moment. She couldn't actually believe that this simp of a man was so bold so quickly! She faked her emotions to make it look like she was sad. "Oooohhhhh no I can't. See, my boss is keeping me overtime."</p>
<p>Gyro smirked, leaning in to whisper to her. "I'm sure you could work something out with him." He was too awkward for it to actually come out sexy so don't think he actually managed to do that because hell no. His voice croaked and everything, dudes.</p>
<p>She giggled and kissed his cheek "Alright, I'll ask him."</p>
<p>Suddenly she noticed a similar figure walk by. Ellie, in her mandatory uniform as well, quickly walked past the table without even noticing Gloria and Gyro's presence. Wherever she was going, she was set on it.</p>
<p>"Oh shit…" Gloria mumbled under her breath.</p>
<p>"What is it?"</p>
<p>"Ellie's here and it looks like she's… with another guy?!" Gloria used her menu to cover up her face so Ellie wouldn't notice her.</p>
<p>Ellie approached another small table that too had a candle, close to Gloria and Gyro, but not too close. She sat down across from the random guy.</p>
<p>"Hello, Mr. Steelbeak. Thank you for inviting me out to dinner."</p>
<p>As soon as Ellie had returned to city hall after her meeting with Mark, Steelbeak immediately approached her and asked her out for dinner. Ellie, still being very upset over Mark, agreed. She hoped it would get her mind off of him. But she didn't think this was an actual date, just an outing. Ellie didn't really pick up the fact he was trying to flirt with her after knowing her for like a day.</p>
<p>"No problem, Elbow!" He smiled, folding his hands together.</p>
<p>She took her water and poured it in the plant on the table next to the candle, thinking that's what her cup was there for. "My name is Ellie."</p>
<p>"Oh sorry. I thought that was your name considering that's what Glomgo- or I mean Godgold calls you. Oh! Hey! You like nature, too? That's cool!"</p>
<p>Ellie folded her hands together as well, staring at him blankly. "I don't empathize or care for organic life unless I have a connection for said life. I don't care about this plant's well being. I don't know it that well."</p>
<p>Steelbeaks nodded his head like he knew what she was talking about but he kind of got lost after she said "organic life". "That's cool, too! I like lots of things!"</p>
<p>"You should really narrow your interests." Observing the surroundings, Ellie started to get confused before looking back at Steelbeak. "Why did you choose such a lavish dining facility for an outing?"</p>
<p>"Oh! I love the food here, don't you?"</p>
<p>"I don't have the ability to digest food."</p>
<p>"Huh. That's cool! Okay so anyways I'm a bad guy right? But you're a bad guy as well? Or well- uh- girl?"</p>
<p>Ellie looked at him strangely. And then it hit her. This dude was a villain version of Launchpad. She internally shuddered and pushed that thought aside. "I prefer to use the term villain, but I suppose the simple answer is yes."</p>
<p>"Me too! I'm also a villain! Man, we have so much in common it's crazy!"</p>
<p>She didn't respond, her mind still on the subject of Mark. To get her mind off of that, she put all her energy into waiting for the next cup of water for the plant.</p>
<p>Steelbeak, lord bless him, wasn't too good at making conversation so he just started humming and tapping the table with his fingers while admiring the light fixtures like a moth. "So uhhh… Glomgold's your uncle! That's pretty cool! Hey, do you know someone named Mark Beaks? Man he's pretty cool too! Glomgold has been telling me about him and how he's building a HUGE robot army."</p>
<p>Shooting her head to look back at him, Ellie frowned. "Glomgold isn't my Uncle anymore, he informed me our relationship is owner and servant now." She paused. "And yes I do know Mark."</p>
<p>Steelbeak leaned back in his chair confused. "Woah, how can you stop having a relative? Weird… But anyways, yeah Mark has a lot of followers on twitter, too! I even follow him. He usually posts selfies. You know what selfies are right?"</p>
<p>"Yes. I know the definition of selfie." She leaned her head on her hand, not knowing what else to do at the table. She didn't want to keep sitting in the same position. "It was one of the first definitions uploaded to my dictionary."</p>
<p>"A dictionary?"</p>
<p>"Yes. The english dictionary but digital, uploaded into my system." Another cup of water came and Ellie happily gave it to the plant. The plant was clearly fake but she wasn't aware of that. Some of the water started to go over the pot and onto the table.</p>
<p>"That's funny. I don't seem to have one in my system. Do you buy it at a store or something?"</p>
<p>Ellie blinked a few times. Was this himbo serious? "Organics don't have them."</p>
<p>"Organics… as in… me?" He pointed to himself.</p>
<p>Ellie leaned forward across the table to study his face, squinting. She was pretty fucking close to him. "I'm sorry. Are you a robot? I didn't notice."</p>
<p>"I'm not a robot! Wait… am I?"</p>
<p>Ellie sat back down in her chair. "No, I don't believe so. You have too much body heat based on my scans."</p>
<p>"Oh yeah I do that sometimes." He laughed.</p>
<p>"You irritate me." She stated, bluntly.</p>
<p>"What? I do? Oh I'm really sorry, Elbow." He awkwardly started scratching his arm even though it wasn't itchy.</p>
<p>Ellie sighed knowing she had done goofed. "I apologize. I'm just a bit upset right now. I was letting it out on you."</p>
<p>Steelbeak smiled again, his feelings were better now. "Oh hey that's alright! Why are you sad though? Did you watch a sad movie?"</p>
<p>She shook her head, and put her face in her hands. She let out as close to a sob as a robot could. "No. It's Mark."</p>
<p>"Who's Mark?"</p>
<p>She ignored him and his stupidity and continued sobbing uncontrollably. Without tears of course. She never experienced this before and didn't know why she couldn't stop.</p>
<p>"Are you crying? Aw I'm sorry that I don't know who Mark is…" He handed her his napkin despite the fact that she did not have any tears.</p>
<p>She took it knowing he was just trying to be nice and still wasn't aware she was a robot for some fucking reason. "No no. Mark Beaks. The guy you were talking about. We got in a fight."</p>
<p>"OOOOOOOHHHHHHH that Mark! What did you guys fight about?"</p>
<p>Ellie didn't know where to begin so she decided to sum up the whole story as best as she could. "We were on a date the other night and I asked if he wanted a child with me but it turned out he already had a child that he didn't tell me about! I thought he reproduced with another woman so I slapped him and stormed out. I didn't speak to him for a few days, but today-" She whimpered. "Today I had to speak to him to let him know he needed to build a robot army for Glomgold, and then we started fighting again. He was pissed, probably because I slapped him, and then he said his son was just a stupid robot he built which completely broke me considering he built me!"</p>
<p>Steelbeak was silent because he was trying to process all of the information he was given while also trying to come up with a good response. "So Mark Beaks… was your boyfriend or something?"</p>
<p>Ellie nodded with her face still buried in her hands.</p>
<p>"But he's not anymore? So it's totally fine that we are on a date right now!"</p>
<p>Ellie immediately removed her hands from her face and looked up on him. "Pardon?"</p>
<p>"I said we are on a date! Isn't that great?!"</p>
<p>Frozen, Ellie took a moment to think of something to say. She couldn't. "We're on a date?"</p>
<p>Steelbeak smiled and nodded.</p>
<p>"Oh, um…" She scooted her chair away from the table just a bit for a breather. That was metaphorical too. "I was not aware this was a date."</p>
<p>"That's alright. I get confused sometimes too!"</p>
<p>His optimism was annoying but she really didn't want to see him sad again. As a robot, she had "some" empathy (there was a limit to that though). Her first thought was to convince him not to like her. Not the best idea, but she wasn't thinking clearly at the moment. "You do know that I'm a robot right? And you still like me?" She prayed to Godgold that would turn him off.</p>
<p>"YOU'RE A ROBOT?! So that's why Godgold calls you robo-idiot… Well now that I know that you're a robot, I like you even more now!"</p>
<p>Ellie stared at him in shock. One reason being she didn't know Godgold called her a robo-idiot behind her back, which actually wasn't surprising but she was still offended. The second reason being that she just made Steelbeak like her more. Most people didn't want to bang a robot to put it in the most PG-13 way possible. But apparently Mr. Steelbeak did.</p>
<p>Steelbeak continued before his eyes widened and he pointed to his beak "Look! I'm a robot too!"</p>
<p>Ellie stood up. "I should get going, Mr. Steelbeak. I do not like you nor do I appreciate your presence." She stated, not caring if he got upset anymore because she was leaving anyway. She walked away, taking the extra cup of water she was just given with her, glass and all. She didn't care to see his reaction or hear how he felt.</p>
<p>As she walked by, she saw a familiar head of hair poking out from a menu. Ellie stopped at the table. "Gloria?"</p>
<p>Gloria kept silent.</p>
<p>Ellie poured her water onto the fake table plant. "There. I watered your plant for you."</p>
<p>Gloria put down her menu before muttering "goddamnit" under her breath. "Oh uh, hey Ellie I didn't see ya there." She did a nervous laugh. Gyro wasn't amused, he put down his menu too and groaned.</p>
<p>"That's alright. I'm aware you don't have the best vision considering…" She pointed to her glasses. "Anyways, turns out I was on a date which I was not aware of, so I told him I did not like him and left the table."</p>
<p>Gloria and Gyro looked at each other for a minute.</p>
<p>"Do you mind if I sit with you two?"</p>
<p>Gloria turned back to Ellie before getting up from her chair. "Oh ummm… I'm sorry, Ellie. Gyro and I were just leaving. But I'll see you around, okay?" Gyro got up as well. Don't worry, he already paid for the bill.</p>
<p>
  
</p>
<p>"That's okay. I'll just walk with you before returning to city hall." She smiled.</p>
<p>Gyro sighed and pinched in between his eyes. "Look, could you please leave, evil robot thing?" He made a 'shoo' gesture.</p>
<p>Ellie wasn't good at picking up on hints, but she could tell something was very off. It was fine if Gyro didn't like being around her, but Gloria? That hit hard. Ellie thought for a moment, not being able to understand what she could have done for Gloria to want to avoid her so much. She couldn't come up with an answer. "Oh, um… yes. Sorry."</p>
<p>Gloria wasn't sure what to say. She didn't want to hurt her feelings but she would like to have one date with Gyro that didn't involve her. And have some space from the girl who had murder plans and was obsessed with their new dictator. She locked arms with Gyro and started to slowly back away from her. "See ya, Ellie!"</p>
<p>Ellie waved them off and continued to stand there for a few moments before sitting down at their now empty table. She put her head on the table and stayed that way until closing.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Camp 'Gold</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The beautiful rays of early afternoon shot through the curtains, hitting Gloria in her smug little face. She groaned, placing the pillow over her face, not wanting to get up and face the real world which was a new North Korean shit show. She sat up knowing she had no other choice, she had slept in long enough.</p>
<p>She had been staying at Gyro's place the past couple nights and she would have never guessed he was such a weeb. She couldn't count all the figurines and anime posters he had, specifically magical girl ones. That seemed to be his favorite anime genre.</p>
<p>Looking over to his side of the bed she noticed he wasn't there. Of course he wasn't. Dude never fucking slept in. Gloria yawned and made her way over to the kitchen to brew some of his dollar store coffee when she noticed a little post it note on the fridge. "Gloria," it read "went into work, didn't want to wake you up. You aren't required to come in today. See you at the executions at noon. Come or you will die. Literally. Love, Gyro 3"</p>
<p>"Oh shit, right. Executions are today…" She shrugged to herself because she really didn't give a shit. She started to raid his fridge and eat all of his good gluten-free food. "Hold up." Gloria picked up her flip phone that was charging on the kitchen counter to check the time. 11:25. Shit, she had to leave NOW or her ass was going to get executed too. Dying didn't seem that bad, but it was if it was at the hands of Glomfuck, their glorious leader. She yeeted the gluten-free poptart onto the ground faster than you can say Gyro and changed into her uniform, bolting out of his house without locking the door or brushing her hair, or teeth, or doing anything hygienic because screw that.</p>
<p>Gloria started booking it to the center of Duckburg. Luckily his house wasn't too far away but Gloria was stopped in her tracks when she saw someone chillin in a dark alleyway. She also needed to catch her breath, she was making good time so it was fine. Luckily she still had 20 minutes before the executions.</p>
<p>Ellie was just sitting there, by a dumpster, with her head buried into her knees and her arms wrapped around. Unbeknownst to Gloria, Ellie had been in the alleyway for a few days now. Once she had left Red Lobster she just had a complete mental breakdown about everything that had happened. Her Uncle (or past uncle?) hating her, Gloria also probably hating her, and everything that went down with Mark. So the best course of action, in her mind, was to shut herself off for a few days. A sort of escapism. Basically robot sleep that wasn't mandatory. She didn't care about impressing Glomgold anymore, she didn't care if she got in trouble when she returned, if he wanted to execute her or whatever. She just needed a break from everything and wanted to be unconscious for a while.</p>
<p>Gloria wasn't exactly sure who it was at first because it was too dark but she was curious like the bitch she was and went over to Ellie. She lightly kicked her with her foot to get her attention. "Hello?" After a few more moments of silence Gloria realized that it was Ellie. "Ellie?"</p>
<p>She didn't respond, evidently.</p>
<p>She kicked her a bit harder to get her attention.</p>
<p>Nada.</p>
<p>Gloria huffed and kicked her a third time. She figured that if she didn't respond by then then she was just dead. But how could she be dead? She's just a robot. Unless it rained or something. I dunno. "Yo, Ellie, wake up!"</p>
<p>Even though Ellie was technically insentient at the moment, her body responded how a normal person would and powered on again. Her subconscious realized someone was calling her name. Her head shot up, dazed and confused. It wasn't until she noticed Gloria standing in front of her that she remembered everything that had happened. Ellie immediately became extremely embarrassed for being caught red-handed, sleeping in an alleyway for god knows how long. She didn't even know what day it was. "Oh, uh- I- this isn't- um…"</p>
<p>For once, Gloria witnessed Ellie not being completely composed. She always responded clearly and formally and for some reason she was acting more… natural at the moment? Gloria didn't really know how to describe it.</p>
<p>Ellie realized she was too embarrassed to think of anything to say and shut up.</p>
<p>"Hey Ellie, why are you down in the dumps?" Gloria laughed at her own joke like she was a fucking comedian.</p>
<p>Ellie on the other hand didn't find the joke funny at all, but rather demeaning. She didn't want Gloria to be around her right now due to the state she was in so she just looked away.</p>
<p>Gloria stared at her for a moment before continuing "Why are you here? We should probably get a move on if we are going to make it to the executions on time."</p>
<p>"Um...I'm just not going to go, Gloria." She sighed. "You can go on ahead."</p>
<p>"Ummm you kind of have to go or else you'll get executed."</p>
<p>"I know and I don't care. I doubt Glomgold will care enough to hunt me down."</p>
<p>Gloria wasn't expecting such a dark response like that, damn. "Are you okay? Something must be wrong considering…" She gestured, to the alleyway and all the cute rats nearby.</p>
<p>"No nothing's wrong!" Ellie spat out really quickly. "I'm just, um…" She trailed off, not being able to come up with a good excuse for sleeping next to a dumpster for a few days. If Gloria didn't like her she didn't understand why she felt the need to stop by and wake her up.</p>
<p>"You just like to hang out in alleyways now?"</p>
<p>"I wasn't "hanging," She did quotations around the word hanging. "I was just sleeping… in an alleyway, er, recharging for a few days."</p>
<p>"Yeah but why? How long has a "few days" been?"</p>
<p>Ellie sighed. "Why do you care? You don't even like me so just screw off." That was the first term that popped up in her internal dictionary when she was looking up another way to say "go away" more aggressively.</p>
<p>Gloria's eyes widened; she had never heard Ellie talk like that EVER! "Well… stop wanting to kill Scrooge and maybe we can be friends again?"</p>
<p>Ellie huffed. "I don't even care about impressing Uncle Glomgold anymore, or you, or Mark, or anyone! So just leave. If Glomgold finds me and puts me on a guillotine for everybody to see my decapitated head again, whatever."</p>
<p>"Duck Jesus, Ellie! You can't say that! Look, do you want me to call someone for you or something? You can't just keep staying here in an alleyway."</p>
<p>"Who are you going to call? Mark? Please." She scoffed, rolling her eyes.</p>
<p>Gloria wasn't used to Ellie speaking… not monotone. She didn't reply to her. She took out her phone and started texting Mark anyways. Yeah they were fighting but if anyone was gonna help this bitch out, it would be Mark. She texted him "Hey dude, so Ellie has been sleeping in an alleyway for days now. Idk why y'all are fighting but you need to look past it long enough to help a bitch out. Peace."</p>
<p>"Can you just leave, already? I want to shut down again."</p>
<p>"Yeah alright… Later, Ellie." Gloria checked the time again to make sure she was still good for time before walking towards the executions.</p>
<p>When she arrived at town square, Gyro waved at her, saving her a seat to watch people be killed. What a gentleman. "I was worried you weren't going to show up. I got a bit scared." He said as Gloria approached him after signing in at the check in station. She sat down in the lawn chair next to him. Everyone was either standing or sat in really bad plastic lawn chairs that everyone's grandparents have on their back porch. Some of the real fucked up citizens had picnic blankets out and were eating while this shit was going down.</p>
<p>Just so you get the full picture, Glomgold's robot army (that Mark had built already because of the plot) surrounded the area.</p>
<p>Glomgold walked onto stage, with his fish Glommy in hand. Steelbeak, also known as Bob, walked behind him, looking all professional and bodyguard like.</p>
<p>Their dictator was pimped out, sunglasses, a bright and sparkly pink vest over a tacky green suit that he spent way too much money on. And to top it all off, golden crocs. "GOOD AFTERNOON MY LOYAL CITIZENS!"</p>
<p>"OUR SAVIOR! OUR GOD!" Citizens chanted. Some seriously praised him and others doing it out of fear for their lives.</p>
<p>"TODAY IS OUR FIRST EXECUTION! ARE YOOOUUUU READYYYYYYY?!" Glomgold continued. This was Bob's cue to start playing hype pop music to set the mood. Everyone cheered. Again, some sincerely, some out of fear. The real ones stayed quiet. "FIRST UP WE HAVE VIOLET!"</p>
<p>Webby and Lena who were in the crowd, obviously, gasped in horror. "VIOLET!"</p>
<p>Lena covered her mouth, fearful that if she spoke up she would be next.</p>
<p>Glomgold continued. "YOU THINK CHILDREN ARE SAFE, DO YOU?! WRONG! I HATE CHILDREN AND THIS ONE THOUGHT IT WOULD BE FUNNY TO CORRECT ME GRAMMAR!"</p>
<p>"My Grammar…" Violet muttered to herself.</p>
<p>While this was happening, Della in the audience, with the rest of the McDuck family, pulled out some popcorn. She looked at Huey who was crying and rocking on the grass. She leaned the bag toward him. "Want some kid?"</p>
<p>He didn't respond and continued sobbing.</p>
<p>She shrugged. "Suit yourself."</p>
<p>Louie grabbed a handful. "MORE FOR ME, BITCH!"</p>
<p>"WATCH YOUR MOTHERFUCKING LANGUAGE!" Della beat the back of his head before giving him a shit load of popcorn. "And share with your brother!"</p>
<p>Scrooge was massaging his temples from behind. Not being able to deal with all this chaos.</p>
<p>"PULL THE LEVER, KRON- I MEAN BOB!"</p>
<p>(Execution Trigger warning) Bob did an aye-aye salute before pulling the lever that dropped the floor from underneath Violet, who had a noose around her neck. (sorry I guess)</p>
<p>She died. Duh. The audience, even the ones who had cheered previously, screamed and covered their eyes. This "god" was not one to be reckoned with.</p>
<p>"LET ALL THESE EXECUTIONS SEND A MESSAGE TO MY DEAR CITIZENS! DON'T YOU DARE BETRAY MEH OR GO AGAINST MY GOD-LIKE WILL!"</p>
<p>He cleared his throat, before taking a sip of fishwater from Glommy's tank because he was thirsty. The fish accidentally went into his mouth and he coughed it up, dropping it back into his tank that was now ⅓ full.</p>
<p>"BEFORE WE MOVE ONTO THE NEXT EXECUTIONS! I HAVE A VERY IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!" He pulled out a list from his ass. "Della Duck, Huey Duck, Louie Duck, Gyro, and Gloria. WILL YOU PLEASE WALK ONTO THE STAGE!" He gestured to the stairs that led up to where his podium stood.</p>
<p>Scrooge growled, standing up from his lawn chair and throwing his cane down aggressively. "YOU CAN'T DO THAT!" He screamed. "YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO CALL MY FAMILY UP THERE!"</p>
<p>A citizen next to him, horrified, looked up and whispered. "You can't speak back to our god."</p>
<p>"YOO!" Scrooge pointed to Glomgold. "ARE NOT A GOD!"</p>
<p>The audience gasped, along with the McDuck family, especially Louie. Speaking of Louie, boy oh boy is he thriving right now! He cannot get enough of this dictator drama. He stood up next to his uncle and started shooting Glomgold a bird.</p>
<p>"GUARDS!" Glomgold smirked, yelling to a few robots. "APPREHEND SCROOGE MCFUCK!"</p>
<p>The guards charged, taking Scrooge into custody. "WHA-? NO! LET ME GO!"</p>
<p>"Bye, Uncle Scrooge!" Louie waved. "I'll see ya later."</p>
<p>"Yeah," Della added. "Have fun escaping. Peace." She pumped her fist to her chest. She was dead serious though, she knew Scrooge was experienced enough to be able to escape so she wasn't worried and just wanted to fuck with him.</p>
<p>Also, where was Donald? Oh yeah, he was so overwhelmed he passed out. Dewey was poking his uncle's foot with a stick to pass the time.</p>
<p>As Scrooge was dragged away, Louie shrugged and just started walking lazily over to the stage. Along with Della, a sobbing Huey who was being dragged along by his mother, Gyro, and Gloria.</p>
<p>Gloria was shitting herself, not literally. She was just really scared. She knew that this fuckwad was chaotic and it's not like they ended on good terms after the Agartha trip so she knew this wasn't going to be pleasant.</p>
<p>The 5 stood before him. Louie waved to the crowd along with Della, Huey rocked on the floor, and Gloria and Gyro just stood there, shooting each other worried looks.</p>
<p>"THESE WHO STAND BEFORE ME!" Glomgold yelled, pointing at the squad of 5. "THESE PEOPLE HAVE WRONGED ME!"</p>
<p>"Yo, the fuck?" Della murmured. Louie shrugged and continued waving with a big smile on his face.</p>
<p>"DELLA, HUEY, AND LOUIE DUCK MUST BE PUNISHED FOR BEING PART OF THE MCDUCK CLAN!" Glomgold's plan was to kill the McDuck's off one by one, eventually getting to Dewey and the others. He wanted them to grieve until they got killed. Leaving Scrooge the last remaining family member. He wanted the richest duck in the world to suffer. "AND GLORIA…"</p>
<p>Gloria glanced back at him, horrified.</p>
<p>"HAS WRONGED ME IN AGARTHA! SHE HAD THREATENED MY LIFE AND MY FAMILY!" He pointed out, even if he disowned Ellie and lowkey wanted her dead too but whatever.</p>
<p>Gloria huffed out a "ha... Yeah I did do that, I forgot…"</p>
<p>Gyro shot her a look before Glomgold called his name.</p>
<p>"AND GYRO GEARLOOSE IS UGLY! THAT'S IT! NO UGLY CITIZENS IN DUCKBURG!" He pounded his fist on the podium, spit flying everywhere as he screamed into the mic.</p>
<p>Gyro grabbed his chest and scoffed at the rude remark! He couldn't believe that ugly short ass man just roasted him in front of everyone like that! Like, damn.</p>
<p>"THESE 5 WILL NOT BE EXECUTED TODAY!"</p>
<p>Louie sighed in disappointment while Gloria and the others sighed in relief.</p>
<p>"INSTEAD THEY WILL BE SENT TO CAMP GODGOLD! THOSE WHO DISRESPECT ME BEYOND BELIEF WILL BE SENT TO A CORRECTIONAL FACILITY!" He laughed. "It'd be better to be executed." That second part was muttered, mischievously, so only he could hear it.</p>
<p>"WAIT WHAT?" They all screamed, except Louie who didn't care and Huey who was still sobbing.</p>
<p>Gloria ran up to the podium, grabbing it by the sides. "Glomgold, please, I know we hate each other and everything but you can't do this!"</p>
<p>"HELL TO THE YEAH I CAN!" He slapped her away, forcing her to the ground. Gyro rushed to her side in concern.</p>
<p>While chaos ensued, robots took the 5 into custody to prepare them to be sent to the "summer" camp. Glomgold turned to Steelbeak behind him and whispered. "Find Mark and the stupid robot to send to Camp GodGold too, they are of no use to me anymore." before he turned back to the audience "LET'S CONTINUE WITH THE EXECUTIONS, SHALL WE?! THEN THE CHURCH SERVICE, HONORING MEH, WILL BEGIN!"<br/>
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________</p>
<p>Mark saw Gloria's text message right away and began to search for Ellie. He knew that he was supposed to go to the executions but he figured he could just watch the YouTube live stream of it later and hope it counted. Gloria also didn't bother to mention which alleyway Ellie was camping out in so he was searching for quite a while. Probably an hour or two before he saw a figure by a dumpster. It was either Ellie or a homeless man. He hoped to Godgold it was the prior because he didn't want to speak to commoner scum.</p>
<p>Ellie was in the same position she was in when Gloria had originally found her, shut down again.</p>
<p>Mark slowly crept closer to make sure that it was Ellie. When he saw that it was her he lightly tapped her shoulder to get her attention. He assumed that she shut down her system because if she was awake she would've known that someone was approaching her already.</p>
<p>Ellie didn't respond or move.</p>
<p>Mark sighed and laid a small handkerchief on the ground before sitting down on it next to her. He kept nudging her until she woke up.</p>
<p>Groggy, she looked to her side and widened her eyes when she saw Mark. "Mark? What are you doing here?" She wasn't mad, just confused.</p>
<p>"Hey Ellie. Glo told me that you were here and I just wanted to make sure that you were okay and safe." There was no hint of malice or sarcasm in his tone. He genuinely was worried about her.</p>
<p>She picked up on his soft tone and had no reason to snap back at him. She was too tired of everything to even be angry anymore. "I told her not to tell you." She sighed, her emotions were more in check at the moment compared to her conversation with Gloria. "I'm fine. I just need to be left alone."</p>
<p>
  
</p>
<p>He ignored that last comment. "Come back to Waddle with me. You can't stay here like this."</p>
<p>"Why? I don't have the same needs as you, I can stay out here and be just fine. I'm just a robot, afterall." The reply was sad, not snarky. "I'm still upset with you, you know?" She tucked her head into her knees again. "Just let me shut down again. Please. I'm tired of this. I'm tired of Uncle Glomgold and sucking up to him and I'm tired of you…" Trailing off, Ellie regretted the last part of her sentence. Of course she didn't really mean that but that's just what came out.</p>
<p>Mark closed his eyes and sighed "Ellie… I'm sorry. I should've told you about my son sooner. It was pretty stupid of me and you have every right to still be mad at me but can we talk about this later? For now, let's go home. Come back to Waddle with me and we can talk about this more." Mark held out his hand.</p>
<p>Ellie started sobbing like she had in the restaurant with Steelbeak the other night, something Mark didn't think she was capable of doing. Without a warning she just fell into his arms and started sobbing more, without tears. "I'm sorry, Mark." She whimpered. "I shouldn't have gotten mad at you, you weren't purposely lying to me. I just- I don't know what I'm doing anymore."</p>
<p>Mark rubbed her back. "Shh it's okay, Ellie. It's okay." He rested the top of his head on hers.</p>
<p>"No, it's not. I wonder why Uncle Glomgold, Gloria and everybody else hates me but the reasoning is so obvious. I can't follow commands, I can't pick up on social cues, I can't express my emotions properly!" Before Mark could say anything she just kept on going, like a train that was going off the rails and was about to cut a five year old's leg off. She started going off of the topic of being upset with Mark and started expressing everything that was bugging her. "I kept insisting that I was my own person who was independent and could think for herself. But I'm not! I said I loved Uncle Glomgold only because I needed someone there to boss me around and tell me what to do. I even made murder plans just to impress him because I need someone to give me orders. That's what I was built for! You don't even tell me what to do anymore so I have no purpose! I love you Mark, I do, but I can't be my own person, I don't function that way! I need commands and orders! Just tell me what to do, please! I'll do it, I'll do anything! You hate Gyro, right? I'll kill him! Just tell me to do it and I will! Just tell me to-"</p>
<p>Mark put his hands up to motion her to stop. "Woah woah woah. Okay no you don't need to kill anyone…" Mark paused and sighed again. He needed to collect his thoughts and make sure what he said next was worded correctly. "I'm sorry I can't be any help for you with that. I know that you need orders because I programmed you to… and there is no way that I can rewrite over that without losing you and your data in the process. I'm sorry."</p>
<p>Ellie tightly gripped his shirt and looked up at him. "Then just destroy me! I can't live like this anymore! I can't stand it!"</p>
<p>That broke Mark's little black heart. "Ellie I can't do that! I can't destroy you! I love you!"</p>
<p>The rats in the trash started whispering to one another in rat language about how good this drama was. The most drama they usually witnessed was the garbage man being late.</p>
<p>"Why?! I just follow commands, that's it! Done deal! You're getting nothing more than that!" She pushed Mark away and hugged herself. "You know why I need a kid, Mark?" Her voice became hushed. "I figured if I became a mother, ordered to be one, it would be a long term command for me to follow so I wouldn't have to worry about searching for one every five minutes."</p>
<p>Mark wasn't sure what to say to that nor did he know how to make her feel any better. "What would you want me to do? Do you… do you want to meet my son or something? Because I can figure something out with his parents. Just tell me what you want from me."</p>
<p>"I don't know. You said he has a happy family already. Besides, you don't even like kids. I love you too much to force that on you. All I can say is I'm sorry for bringing it up and starting all of this. I'm just desperate."</p>
<p>"I love you, too and I'm here for you. We can figure something out, okay?" Mark gave her a small smile.</p>
<p>Even if she felt defeated, Mark's reassurance calmed her down. "You mean it?"</p>
<p>"Of course!" Mark hugged her again.</p>
<p>She hugged him back, tightly, burying her face into his chest. Her sobbing had subsided and she relaxed in his arms.</p>
<p>Mark was the first one to break the hug. He looked at Ellie again, lifting her chin, and smiled before kissing her. Ellie was frozen in place before melting into it. She laid her hands on the sides of his face to deepen the kiss. As an inorganic life form, logically Ellie computed that she would derive no pleasure from intimate actions. It wasn't until now that she realized how wrong she was. For all she knew, it was a malfunction in her programming, but she wasn't going to tell Mark that because she didn't want it to go away.</p>
<p>If it wasn't for the fact they were in an alleyway mid-day, she would have wanted to push it much further, knowing she had the correct anatomy to do so. But for now all she could do was cling onto him.</p>
<p>Without thinking, Mark let things get out of hand and made a last minute decision, slamming Ellie against the brick wall when-</p>
<p>"Am I interrupting something?" a familiar voice said, breaking the two from their mini makeout session next to a dumpster and a squad of rats.</p>
<p>Mark jumped and broke the kiss to see who was talking to them. "Ummm what do you want?!" He snapped.</p>
<p>Before them stood none other than ya boi, Steelbeak.</p>
<p>Ellie scooted behind Mark so he was a shield for her. After the other night, Steelbeak and her had lowkey beef and she had a feeling whatever was happening wasn't going to be good. She would say he was too much of a himbo to do anything, but he was villain himbo which was a whole other ball game. "Hello, Mr. Steelbeak. I hope there are no negative feelings between us from the other night…"</p>
<p>"Oh there is… you left me at the Red Lobster like an idiot!" Steelbeak snapped "and now I catch you making out with Mark Beaks of all people?! Ugh."</p>
<p>"Okay time out. What is happening? Ellie, did you go on a date with this idiot?"</p>
<p>"I AM NOT AN IDIOT!" Steelbeak punched the nearby brick wall, causing the bricks to crack and a small but frightfully noticeable dent.</p>
<p>"I did," She continued to cower behind him. "But it was unintentional. I believed it was just an outing."</p>
<p>This only pissed Steelbeak off more. "Alright that's it! Get up, you two! Godgold has a special correctional facility that he asked me to personally send you to! MUAHAHAHAHAH!" He took out a gun and pointed it at them. "Think of it as a summer camp."</p>
<p>"Will there at least be WiFi?"</p>
<p>Ellie whispered into Mark's bird earhole or whatever. "Is it okay if I shut down again? I do not think I am emotionally capable of dealing with the situation at the moment." Her formal speech was back to normal.</p>
<p>"WILL YOU TWO SHUT THE FUCK UP?!"</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. It's a BABEH?!</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>A train chugged along the tracks, heading through a canyon away from Duckburg. It's destination? The summer camp known as "Camp Godgold". The inside of the train, though fancy and high class, didn't sooth the passengers at all because they knew they were all fucked. No one knew what was going to happen. Were they going to be forced to make license plates? Farm? Die? Who knows!</p>
<p>Random citizens were selected by Godgold just because he wanted to build the population of the camp, so most passengers hadn't done anything. Their "god" just claimed it was because they were ugly or used too much toilet paper in order to defend his reasoning behind sending them off.</p>
<p>Among the crowded train sat the five sorry souls that Glomgold had called out in front of everyone that afternoon. Gloria, Gyro, Della, Louie, and Huey who still was suffering from PTSD.</p>
<p>Della had her dear beloved children sat together a few seats down from Gloria and Gyro.</p>
<p>Gyro intertwined his hand with Gloria's tightly. He wasn't going to say anything, but the dude was going to shit himself. Not because they were probably going to die, but because he was going to be away from his lab for a while. That was the worst form on torture. He adjusted his glasses, turning to Gloria. "Are you doing okay there?" He wasn't in the mood for talking but he didn't want to be a bitch so he asked to be polite or something close to it.</p>
<p>"Dude," She groaned. "This is going to be like the Agartha prison all over again, but this time I won't be able to see Glomgold get beat up! This fucking blows!" Gloria didn't care that they were probably going to die either. Sure, she was scared, but there was nothing she could do about it so she was going to deal like the badass bitch she was. Her only qualm was that it wasn't going to be as entertaining as the Agartha prison. "I'm also not happy because, well, ya know." She nudged her head toward the two sitting across from them.</p>
<p>Neither Gyro or Gloria were happy to find out that Mark and Ellie were assigned to sit directly across from them during the few hour ride for the sole purpose of starting drama in this chapter. Although Gloria didn't get into an intense fight with either Ellie or Mark, there was a tense air between them that didn't need to be pointed out.</p>
<p>The tension between Mark and Gyro was always present so that was nothing new.</p>
<p>Glora was thankful that, at the very least, Ellie wasn't conscious which meant they didn't have to make awkward eye contact after their strange encounter (or fight?) in the alleyway.</p>
<p>After being forced on the train by the hands of Steelbeak, Ellie came to the conclusion that she was going to shut down again until they arrived at Camp Godgold because she didn't want to deal with her emotions. Mark warned her it wasn't healthy to keep avoiding her feelings but she did it anyway, promising she wouldn't do it anymore once they arrived at the camp. She had been "robot sleeping" on Mark's shoulder for the past hour. How long the train ride was going to last was unknown.</p>
<p>On a side note, Steelbeak was also on the train. Glomgold had texted him that he was now in charge of looking over the "campers" during their nice getaway. He would be working along with other employees that Glomgold forced to be employed, among some robot guard dudes Mark had built on behalf of their dictator as of Ellie's request the other day. Mark wouldn't have done so if he knew it would be that said robots would be holding him captive a few days later but too late now.</p>
<p>Gyro and Gloria's conversation died once more as they listened to the chattering of other to-be campers, while still holding hands for comfort.</p>
<p>Gloria spaced out, not knowing what else to do, and she started to stare at nothing. That nothing just so happened to be directly at Mark.</p>
<p>He looked up from his phone, that wasn't taken away from him just yet, and scoffed. "The fuck is your deal?! #mindyourdamnbusiness." Mark didn't have big issues with Gloria, but he wasn't exactly on good terms with her since she was now Gyro's love interest and in some sort of disagreement or fight with Ellie. Mark was just that petty. He was also being an asshole because that was his natural personality. His character development could only go so far.</p>
<p>Gloria jumped back into reality to deal with Mark's bullshit yet again. "What's your problem, bitch?!" She was too tired to come up with a better insult.</p>
<p>"Ugh, I got a problem because you're staring at me. You started it!"</p>
<p>Gloria scoffed and mocked him "'you started it' god what a baby…" That in itself was immature but whatever she's a bitch like that.</p>
<p>Mark started tweeting complaints about Gloria, not directly stating it was her in his comments, however. Just in case she happened to see them. "Whatever. Just fuck off."</p>
<p>"You were the one who started bitching first! YOU fuck off!"</p>
<p>"YOU WERE FUCKING STARING AT ME!" He threw his hands up in the air and almost dropped his phone.</p>
<p>"NO I WASN'T!" Gloria kept getting louder and louder, which was probably annoying everyone on the train.</p>
<p>"THEN WHAT WERE YOU LOOKING AT?!" Mark didn't know where to stop and didn't pay any mind to the passengers nearby that were starting to stare. Steelbeak was far enough away to not notice because of how loud the train was in general. "YOU CLEARLY HAVE AN ISSUE SO JUST SPIT IT OUT INSTEAD OF SITTING THERE AND SCOWLING!"</p>
<p>"YEAH I HAVE AN ISSUE! YOU FUCKING TALKING TO ME! PISS THE FUCK OFF, BEAKS, OR I'LL BEAT YOUR DUMBASS AGAIN! YOU KNOW I THRIVE IN PRISON!"</p>
<p>During all of this, Gyro was looking out the window trying to fall asleep. Mark's voice made him want to pass out most of the time. If his girlfriend wanted to fight him, fine, but he'd be damned if he was getting involved.</p>
<p>This time around, Mark leaned forward to get all up in Gloria's grill. He was getting pissed and fast. At this point, Ellie's head had fallen off his shoulder and she began to wake up.</p>
<p>"WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO?! GET RANDOM TWINK ASS CITIZENS TO GANG UP ON ME!? WE'RE NOT WITH A BUNCH OF GANG MEMBERS ANYMORE, BITCH!"</p>
<p>"OH I DON'T NEED A GANG TO TAKE YOU DOWN! I CAN FUCKING KILL YOU BY MYSELF JUST FUCKING TEST ME!" She also scooted closer to get in his face as well. She was so close to punching him.</p>
<p>Mark's train (haha) of thought flew out the window. "TRY TO KILL ME AND I'LL COMMAND ELLIE TO KILL YOU!"</p>
<p>"HA! YOU NEED YOUR GIRLFRIEND TO TRY TO KILL ME BECAUSE YOU KNOW THAT YOU CAN'T FUCKING DO IT YOURSELF!"</p>
<p>"YOU'RE JUST SCARED BECAUSE YOU KNOW YOU'LL GET SHANKED IF IT GETS TO THAT POINT!"</p>
<p>"I'M NOT SCARED OF YOU OR ELLIE! TRY TO COME AFTER ME. BITCH! I'LL FUCK YOU UP!"</p>
<p>Gyro yawned and closed his eyes. He's gotten used to Gloria constantly starting fights.</p>
<p>At this point, Ellie was finally fully awake. She looked between both Mark and Gloria. "What's going on?"</p>
<p>Gloria was the first to answer her. "Your bitch of a boyfriend keeps bothering me and I'm so close to beating his ass again!"</p>
<p>Ellie sighed, she really was just woken up to deal with this shit on their way to prison summer camp. "Gloria, you know I won't let you do that."</p>
<p>Mark leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms with a smug look on his face which made Gloria despise him more.</p>
<p>While the two glared at each other, Ellie noticed Gloria's body language was off by about 2%, something only she would be able to notice. Gloria probably wasn't even aware. Without trying to be obvious, Ellie quickly scanned her before looking back up at Gloria who was now staring at her furiously because it basically looked like Ellie was eyeing her with disgust when really she was just assessing her chemistry like the weird robot she was. Ellie's expression was a mixture of concern and confusion, not because Gloria looked like she was going to beat her face in, but because of what she noticed during her scan.</p>
<p>Ellie cringed inwardly, mentally preparing for Gloria's wrath. The worst part was she knew that she would have to approach Gloria about the "predicament" she noticed her ex-friend was currently in. Now Ellie was the one staring at her.</p>
<p>"What's your deal?" Gloria spat, finally deciding to break the tension.</p>
<p>Ellie gulped, metaphorically. "I just- you- um- nothing…I have no deal." She wanted to slap herself. Everytime she tried to say anything to Gloria lately she ended up stumbling over her own words. Mostly because she knew Gloria had every right to be mad at her for plotting murder, but the current situation certainly didn't help.</p>
<p>After Ellie told her in the alleyway that she wasn't planning out Scrooge's death anymore, Gloria really didn't have a reason to fight with her but there was still beef, yet she didn't want to keep fighting with her. She wanted to save all of that for Mark. She sighed "Nevermind...".</p>
<p>Ellie knitted her hands together and bit her lip before she finally had enough courage. "Can we, perhaps, talk alone? In the train restroom, possibly?"</p>
<p>Gloria raised a brow. "What? Why?"</p>
<p>Mark and Gyro also gave Ellie a strange look.</p>
<p>"Just so we can work things out." She lied.</p>
<p>Gloria stared at her for a minute before agreeing to talk to her.</p>
<p>The two awkwardly made their way to the small ladies room, leaving Mark and Gyro behind. They immediately began to bicker about science or whatever. Didn't really matter.</p>
<p>The restroom was super small, just a tad larger than an airplane version, so it was very uncomfortable to stand next to each other in such a confined space. Especially when there was a bit of strain in their friendship.</p>
<p>"Hi…" Ellie started, not knowing how to begin what was quickly going to become a very awkward situation. She was 100% sure Gloria didn't know what she knew.</p>
<p>Gloria, on the other hand, had in mind they were there to work out their fight.</p>
<p>"Hey? What do you want to talk about exactly?" Gloria was clearly uncomfortable too because who wouldn't be?</p>
<p>"Just, uh…" Ellie didn't know why it was so hard to talk about. It was just a normal organic thing she wanted to try with Mark owo "Did you, um, maybe… have intercourse recently?"</p>
<p>Gloria's face heated up. "WHAT?!"</p>
<p>Ellie got herself under control and went into montone mode. "I apologize for not speaking clearly. I asked if you had intercourse with a male recently."</p>
<p>"That's none of your business! God, what the fuck?!"</p>
<p>This was going poorly so far. "Oh, um, I just noticed… that you did."</p>
<p>"What the hell does that even mean?!" Gloria hiked up her button down shirt by the collar as if that was the reason.</p>
<p>"Erm…" Ellie looked away. "Do you want to be a mom or something… because that's… cool."</p>
<p>"Ellie you're not making any sense here. Did Mark set you up?! Did he tell you to bother me? I swear i'm gonna kill him…"</p>
<p>Ellie waved her hands frantically. "No no no. That's not it. I just, um, noticed your body language and chemistry was off so I scanned you and…um… yeah."</p>
<p>Gloria looked down at herself and then back up at Ellie. "So?" She was not picking up what Ellie was putting down here.</p>
<p>"You're 4 days, 12 hours, 47 minutes, and 3.4 seconds pregnant." Ellie spat out before covering her mouth like she just cursed.</p>
<p>She stared at Ellie, unable to really believe what she just told her. "I'm… what? Ellie, I swear if Mark is telling you to prank me..." She trailed off.</p>
<p>"I know you and I have our issues right now but I wouldn't lie to you about something like this. I just figured you had the right to know." She squeaked out. When Gloria didn't respond she continued. "It was none of my business. I shouldn't have said anything."</p>
<p>Gloria just stared at the floor as if that was interesting to look at. Her whole mood changed. "So…. I'm pregnant? Are you sure?" Gloria croaked out. All of her confidence just went down the drain.</p>
<p>Ellie, though reluctant, gently laid a hand on Gloria's shoulder to comfort her. "I'm 100% sure, unless my system is corrupted. But I doubt that's the case, I do internal scans of myself daily."</p>
<p>Gloria kept staring at the ground, not responding to Ellie. She was quiet until she started to cry. She quickly put her hand over her mouth to sound it out.</p>
<p>Ellie retreated back. Gloria was always so confident and outspoken. Seeing her cry, like Ellie herself had earlier, felt unnatural. She just stared at her without knowing what to say. Ellie could barely handle her own new emotions, how was she supposed to handle someone else's? "Is- Is that not good news?" Ellie whispered. She wasn't able to comprehend how that wasn't as someone who literally had a mental breakdown over wanting a child.</p>
<p>"I mean… It's fine if it wasn't for the fact that we are being sent away to god knows where to slowly die! I- I'm also not ready to have a kid! Oh god I can't do this!" She started to cry harder and sat down onto the floor as best as she could in such a confined space.</p>
<p>Kneeling beside her, Ellie took her into a hug and let her cry on her shoulder. Her uniform shirt was now ruined but she could worry about that later. "It's going to be okay." Ellie paused. "Gloria, you know when we first fought in Agartha and you told me that I couldn't think for myself and only followed commands?" It was off topic, but she was going to bring it back around. She rubbed circles on Gloria's back as she continued to sob. Ellie continued. "Well, you were right all along. I need someone to tell me what to do. I need a command. That's just how I function. So… just order me to look out for you and your child at the camp and I'll make sure nothing will happen. That'll be my new command and I won't fail. All you have to do is ask me."</p>
<p>Gloria rubbed her eyes. "What? You don't hate me? Are you sure… Thank you, Ellie…" Gloria was just rambling all of her thoughts together so her sentences weren't really that clear.</p>
<p>Ellie took her hand to get her attention. "Of course I don't hate you. All you have to do is tell me to do it and I will. It'll be inserted into my program. I know that's a bit...odd, but it's the only way I can describe it."</p>
<p>Gloria sighed. "Okay… Ellie, could you please watch after me and my child?" She spoke clearly despite the fact that she was still shaking.</p>
<p>Ellie gave an understanding smile. "Yes, I will. I promise." She ceased her sentence briefly, wondering if now was the time to ask. "Are you going to tell Gyro?" Gloria hadn't told her it was him but it was obvious enough for a robot to figure out.</p>
<p>"I dunno… I guess I would have to at some point but- I can't. Not now at least…"</p>
<p>"What?" Ellie tilted her head, not understanding Gloria's decision making. "Why not?"</p>
<p>"It's not that simple. Think about what's going on! I can't tell him now! I don't think I can bring myself to tell him…"</p>
<p>"He needs to know, Gloria." Ellie stated, bluntly. Her concern was gone and she began speaking factually. "If you don't tell him, I will."</p>
<p>"WHAT?! Like hell you are!"</p>
<p>"Why not? I still don't understand your reasoning. He's the father so he needs to know as soon as possible and if you won't tell him, I'll go do it right now for you. Therefore you won't have to worry about telling him."</p>
<p>Gloria held up her hands like she was surrendering. "Okay okay you win. I'll talk to him myself but on my own terms. Please don't say anything to anyone."</p>
<p>"Okay." Ellie sighed. "I won't tell anyone."</p>
<p>The door to the small restroom swung wide open to reveal a scowling and menacing Steelbeak. Good thing they were decent because that would have been a huge invasion of privacy.</p>
<p>"What the FUCK are you two doing?! There is a LINE!" He pointed to the line of women that looked like they were about to piss themselves.</p>
<p>Gloria wiped her eyes and got up from the bathroom floor to leave. "We were just leaving, don't get your underwear in a twist."</p>
<p>"Jokes on you! I'm not wearing any! Now scram!"</p>
<p>Ellie, still on the floor, looked up at Steelbeak in fear before scattering off after Gloria. She held onto Gloria's arm as if that would protect her from Steelbeak's deathly glare. Man. He was probably going to break her in half at Camp Godgold.</p>
<p>The two returned to their seats and Mark and Gyro immediately stopped fighting. Mark noticed Gloria's red eyes and decided to get all up in her business again. "Yo, you good? Or you just being a pussy?"</p>
<p>Gloria shot him a "don't fucking test me right now" glare and quiely sat down next to Gyro. Gyro looked concerned but Gloria didn't bother to look at him. She went back to holding his hand. He didn't question it and squeezed her hand back, letting her rest her head on his shoulder. He wiped some of her tears away despite him being at an awkward angle.</p>
<p>"Are you okay?" He whispered.</p>
<p>Thankfully Mark was back to playing Mario Kart and taking selfies while Ellie had decided to shut down to give Gloria some space. Whether she was going to tell Gyro or not, she needed it.</p>
<p>"Yeah, I'm okay." She whispered back but it was clear that she was lying.</p>
<p>He gestured to Ellie. "Is it something she did? I can figure out a way to shut her down permanently or something." He awkwardly laughed, not knowing how to deal with a woman crying. "Haha… evil robots. Funny…"</p>
<p>Gloria shook her head. "No she didn't do anything, it's alright."</p>
<p>"If you say so." He sighed. He should've looked up more stuff about relationships on WikiHow before all this started.</p>
<p>Gloria was silent for a moment before speaking up again. "I'll talk to you about it later, okay? Now just isn't a good time."</p>
<p>He gulped, hoping it wasn't something he did. "Later it is."</p>
<p>
  
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Shark Battle of Cabin 8</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Steelbeak held the train mic up to his face, a little too close. Spit through into the tiny holes on the walkie talkie thing they have on airplanes and trains. You know what I'm putting down. "ATTENTION PASSENGERS! WE HAVE ARRIVED AT CAMP GODGOLD! PLEASE EXIT THE TRAIN IN AN ORDERLY FASHION!"</p>
<p>A lot of the passengers had to cover their ears. Gloria nearly jumped out of her skin, she had fallen asleep for the past few hours and Steelbeek's very unsettling voice certainly wasn't the greatest thing to wake up to. She rubbed her eyes, they hurt from all her sobbing. She also got a headache from crying as well so that's fun.</p>
<p>"GOD'S BOTS," He continued, referring to Godgold's robot army. "WILL ESCORT YOU TO THE CHECK IN STATION WHERE YOU WILL BE GIVEN CAMP UNIFORMS AND ESCORTED TO YOUR BUNKS BEFORE TODAY'S "FUN" ACTIVITIES BEGIN!"</p>
<p>Mark tweeted "Yo, I feel like I'm in 3rd grade again. Fucking EWWWWW! #HALPPPP!" He showed his phone to Ellie. "Does this sound good?"</p>
<p>Ellie never grasped the concept of tweeting so she just nodded and smiled.</p>
<p>"Okay cool. POST!"</p>
<p>Everyone waited in their seats until it was their turn to shuffle out of the train like they were in an airplane but their only luggage was sadness.</p>
<p>Gyro grabbed Gloria's hand to lead her out. He may have been an asshole (not to the same extreme as Mark) but he was extremely worried about her. He had never seen her cry before, not that'd he known her that long, but she didn't seem like the type to do that.</p>
<p>Mark was planning on leading Ellie but before he could even stand up she awkwardly crawled over him. She had to be behind Gloria. She had a new command and she wasn't going to fail like that one time she got her head chopped off. Good times. Beaks raised a brow at her action but shrugged it off before following behind.</p>
<p>Everyone got off the train and started huddling towards Steelbeak who was on top of a dinky ass wooden podium. "Allllriiiight campers! Welcome to Camp Godgold!" Steelbeaks spread out his arms as a gesture for everyone to look around their surroundings. There was a paper sign above him, painted poorly in green and gold. that read "Camp Godgold". It was still wet and dripping to add to the tackiness. Everything looked like a low budget stereotypical children's summer camp. There was even a small totem pole with Glomgold's face expressing different emotions as each head on the pole.</p>
<p>Gyro was completely and utterly insulted that he was sent here instead of being killed off. The nerve. "You've got to be fucking kidding me…"</p>
<p>Meanwhile, toward the back, Della nudged Huey. "See? It's like The Junior Woodchucks."</p>
<p>Huey was still crying and laying on the dirt. "It's not the same! It's not the same!" He repeated.</p>
<p>Louie just started taking pictures of his brother and laughing like an asshole. He was the evil triplet and needed to own up to it.</p>
<p>"EVERYONE WILL BE ASSIGNED A BUNK NUMBER! PUT ON YOUR UNIFORMS AND MEET BY THE TOTEM POLE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CAMP IN 10! TRY TO ESCAPE AND THE GOD BOTS WILL SHOOT!" He pointed over to white tents you see at Funday in elementary school, where the campers would get their assigned numbers.</p>
<p>There were God Bots manning the stations, giving people a slip of paper with a cabin number on it. Everyone groaned and formed a line.</p>
<p>"Um…. I thought this was going to be like the holocaust or something?" Mark added, being the insensitive and offensive prick he was.</p>
<p>"Shut up, Mark." Gyro and Gloria spat in unison, because they were cute like that UWU.</p>
<p>Ellie clasped her hands together and smiled widely. "Oh this is going to be so much fun!" She said to no one in particular as the four stood in a formulated elementary line. Ellie obviously wasn't picking up on the fact that it was definitely going to be dangerous because it was built by none other than Glomgold. For all she knew, this place was going to be safe and she wouldn't have to be so concerned for Gloria. Plus she had orders to follow so things were going great!</p>
<p>"Ew no it won't! I swear if this place has an awful connection…" Mark grabbed his phone and tried to refresh his twitter page to make sure that the connection was good. It was a tad bit slower than Mark had hoped for but he'd still be able to post. He did notice however that there was a wifi connection called "GLOMGOLD 69 CAMP !" Weird. There was a password but Mark guessed it anyways by just typing in "scroogesucksass" all lowercase and it worked.</p>
<p>Ellie ignored him. "I'll be able to experience what a childhood is like!" She tapped Gloria's shoulder. "I don't believe you are in any danger at all. How quaint. You and your-"</p>
<p>Gloria stepped on her foot to give her a quick hint to shut the fuck up.</p>
<p>Ellie didn't pick up on that either but it worked on shutting her up. "If that was an attempt to hurt me, I cannot feel pain." She gasped excitedly, remembering something to add. "But I can feel pleasure!"</p>
<p>Mark looked up from his phone. "Wait, what?"</p>
<p>"NEXT!" One of the God Bots shouted at the four of them. Gyro was the first one to get his cabin number followed by Gloria then Ellie and lastly Mark.</p>
<p>Gyro turned to Gloria and reluctantly the other two as well. "Alright," He sighed. "What's everyone's cabin numbers?" He hated to think about it, but they were all in this together now. Even if this camp was "innocent" and "fun", being with Mark made it HELL.</p>
<p>Gloria looked at her number. "I got 8."</p>
<p>Mark groaned "Ugh! Same…" He crumpled his little paper up and shoved it into his pocket before going back to his phone.</p>
<p>"Me too!" Gyro held onto Gloria's hand before it sunk in that they were in the same cabin as Mark. "...fuck." He muttered under his breath.</p>
<p>Gloria looked at Ellie. "What about you?"</p>
<p>Ellie glanced down at her paper and knitted her eyebrows together. She held it up. "I was not aware "L" was a number."</p>
<p>Confused, Gloria took her slip of paper to read what she was talking about. "Oh. you had it upside down. You have cabin 7."</p>
<p>"WHAT?!" Mark took Ellie's paper and ripped it up. "YOU'RE TELLING ME I'M STUCK WITH THEM?!" He stomped his foot like a child.</p>
<p>"Hold on." Ellie walked up to a small dog kid. "Hello, what's your name? I'm Ellie."</p>
<p>"Hi Ellie! I'm Max! Max Goof!"</p>
<p>Ellie didn't listen to what he said because she didn't care. She pointed to his slip of paper. "What's your cabin number?"</p>
<p>Max held up his ticket slip high like he was showing it off. "8! That's how old I am! Pretty neat, huh?"</p>
<p>"Yes, it is." She ripped the slip of paper from him. "You're cabin 7 now."</p>
<p>Max's little heart shattered. "B-but… I was in cabin 8!"</p>
<p>"Now you aren't. I care not for your emotions." She walked away and went back to the group. "I stole a small child's slip of paper so the issue is resolved."</p>
<p>"Niiiiiiceeee!" Mark gave her a fistbump.</p>
<p>"Anyway…" Gyro just ignored the fact Ellie had robbed a child. "We need to head to our cabin to get our "camp uniforms", I don't feel like being shot today." He scoffed before walking off. He didn't know where cabin 8 was but oh well. He acted like he did.</p>
<p>Gloria shrugged and followed, trusting he knew what the fuck he was doing.</p>
<p>Mark managed to stay close behind without looking up from his phone.</p>
<p>The cabin was small and old, cobwebs acting as nice decor. Think Camp Lazlo. Gyro held the door open for everyone before slamming the door on Mark who dodged the blow before walking in nonchalantly.</p>
<p>The inside was beach themed, cockroaches literally EVERYWHERE and they scattered immediately. Under the beds, into cracks, behind picture frames. Picture frames? The four looked around to see that even though they were in an old ass cabin, it was beach themed. Fish nets lined the ceiling and there were lovely pictures of dolphins and seashells. Typical white mom bathroom aesthetic.</p>
<p>Gloria, Gyro, and Mark just stood there, staring in horror. Not only because of the roaches, but because of the horrible choice in decor. Ellie didn't mind and immediately crawled onto the floor to look under the bed. There was a squad of roaches obviously. She didn't have experience around animals often so she smiled. "Hello. What are your names?"</p>
<p>"Ew Ellie don't talk to them! They're cockroaches!" Gloria squished one under her shoe.</p>
<p>Ellie shrugged, not caring that a life was lost because she still didn't care for lifeforms unless she had an emotional connection to them. "Oh. Do they speak Chinese or something? I can download the language."</p>
<p>Gyro massaged his temples before walking over to a bed to pick up a uniform. "We don't have time for your stupidity. Let's put on our uniforms and head to the totem pole." He held up the garments. It was typical dad hiking shorts with a blue shirt that read "cabin 8" in comic sans. There was also a picture of a shark on the back. "As god as my witness I would rather die than wear this…"</p>
<p>"Oooohhhh vintageeeeee!" Of course Mark liked them. "This new fit would go GREAT with my crocs!"</p>
<p>"Gyro is correct," Ellie said. He thought she was referring to the fact they were ugly before she continued "We should change quickly so we do not get executed." Obviously she still didn't grasp the concept of social cues and norms as she stated in her mental breakdown so she began to unbutton her shirt to change.</p>
<p>"WOAH WOAH WOAH! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" Mark blocked Ellie from Gloria and Gyro's view with his body.</p>
<p>"Changing." She stated bluntly, as per usual.</p>
<p>"Not here! Go to the bathroom stalls outside!"</p>
<p>She looked to where he was pointing. There was a line of wooden porta potties across from their cabin. "Oh okay. Keep and eye on Gloria before I come back." She said before walking out with her clothes.</p>
<p>"Ew, why!?" Mark continued to scroll through his twitter feed.<br/>____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________</p>
<p>"EW! WHY!?" Mark said as he looked up at Godgold's face at the top of the totem pole. He only now just noticed. The cabin 8 group now stood outside with everyone else, fully changed, waiting for Steelbeak's, their camp leader, command.</p>
<p>Each cabin had a different theme and their shirts matched as such. But everyone still had the same shitty dad shorts.</p>
<p>Huey's shirt was that of a Mickey Mouse silhouette. He held onto his mom's leg as he sobbed. She patted his head as she ignored Louie's complaints about how he couldn't figure out the wifi password.</p>
<p>"Mom!" He demanded her attention.</p>
<p>"UGH! WHAT?!"</p>
<p>"What's the fucking wifi password?!"</p>
<p>Della snatched Louie's phone to look at the wifi username. She paused for a moment before handing the phone back to her son. "Try Scrooge sucks ass. All lowercase, no spaces."</p>
<p>Louie typed it in and smiled "It worked! Thanks, mom!"</p>
<p>"Uncle Scrooge doesn't suck and Glomgold is going to kill him!" Huey screamed.</p>
<p>
  
</p>
<p>"ALRIGHT CAMPERS!" Steelbeak stood in front of everyone in the same outfit Chris McClain wore on Total Drama Island. "EACH DAY WE WILL HAVE A FUN COMPETITION BETWEEN CABINS! YA KNOW, TO ENJOY NATURE AND GET YA BRAINS WORKING!" He pointed to his metal beak even though that's not where a brain was located, but he didn't know that. "TODAY WE WILL BE CANOEING! SOUND FUN? DON'T CARE!" He motioned for everyone to follow. Whether they actually followed didn't matter because the God Bots watched closely to make sure they didn't have a choice.</p>
<p>The hike to the lake wasn't too far. It seemed like the camp surrounded by a lot of them, along with swamps here and there. Ellie was having a blast observing the new scenery while her cabin mates were suffering from the humidity and getting bit by very large mosquitos.</p>
<p>"UGH! GOD! YOU THINK THIS PLACE WOULD BE CLASSY ENOUGH TO GIVE US BUG SPRAY!" Mark screamed, taking pictures of his mosquito bites to post on instagram.</p>
<p>"Mark," Gyro turned to him, gesturing to him with a praying motion and breathing deeply. "We are living together now so how about you shut up for 5 seconds?"</p>
<p>"#whatever you incell." He made a 'W' shape on his forehead with his free hand.</p>
<p>Before Gyro could protest, Steelbeak cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. They were huddled close enough for him not to scream. "Here's the rules, y'all," He pulled out a sheet of paper that Glomgold had written for him because there was no way he could remember the rules on his own. "This camp is like the Hunger Games, got it? Each game you either make it out alive or die. If you make it to the other side last place, you will burn at the stake in the middle of the camp at dawn. Sounds good?"</p>
<p>Della raised her hand. "Yeah, hello. Della Duck. Full time mom and hot babe. Do you mind telling us the rules of this particular game?"</p>
<p>"Simple. Make it across the lake without dying." He gestured to the waters behind him. "Each canoe has a cabin number on it. When I say go, you go!" Before he even paused for anyone to process that he shouted "GO!"</p>
<p>Ellie scanned the area within milliseconds to find their canoe among the 30 of them. And no, they weren't in order. She grabbed Gloria's hand since she was a priority now and bolted toward the boat, giving Gyro and Mark no choice but to run after her.</p>
<p>"WHY DID YOU GRAB HER AND NOT ME?!" Mark whined. "MY LEGS HURT!"</p>
<p>"SHUT UP!" Gyro screamed, jumping at the head of the boat. Ellie helped Gloria in behind him before jumping in herself and Mark was stuck in the back like the loser he was.</p>
<p>There were only two paddles. Gyro grabbed one and threw the other at Mark. Ellie caught it for him before it could smack him the face and handed it to him gently.</p>
<p>"Wait." Mark squinted at the wooden stick. "What the hell are we doing?"</p>
<p>"YOU AND ME! PADDLE! NOW!" Gyro was going apeshit and pushed the boat off the shore.</p>
<p>"THAT MEANS I CAN'T TEXT!"</p>
<p>"GODDAMNIT JUST PADDLE, MARK!" Gloria screamed. She was already getting stressed. The waters seemed calm enough to not die in, but they would certainly die if they got in last place.</p>
<p>Right now they were in a happy medium, 15 in front and 14 behind them. They were falling behind and quickly since Mark didn't know how to paddle. He never did any physical activity other than yoga. "I HATE THISSSS! #EW!"</p>
<p>"We don't have time for this!" Gloria snatched the paddle from Mark, "accidentally" hitting him upside the head with it.</p>
<p>"Gloria, you should not be stressing your body out in your condition!" Ellie snatched the paddle faster than Gloria had snatched it from Mark. She was taking her command seriously.</p>
<p>Gyro didn't pick up on what Ellie had just said due to his intense focus. "I DON'T CARE WHO PADDLES! JUST DO IT!"</p>
<p>"Wait…" Ellie stopped. "I need to look up how to paddle. Hold on." As Ellie was searching through her very large archive, a cold sensation wrapped around her feet. She looked down immediately and froze in horror. There were small holes purposely poked in the bottom of the boat and water was flooding in quickly. She jumped up, screaming and almost tipping the boat over. To make it worse she dropped the paddle in the water during her freakout.</p>
<p>Gyro whipped his head around, still paddling furiously through the water. "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU JUST DO!?"</p>
<p>Ellie didn't respond. She kept her feet up and started to freak out even more. If she wasn't careful she would stress out her system to the point she would shut down on accident. Robot panic attack, if you will.</p>
<p>"Why is the boat sinking?!" Gloria screamed at all 3 of them.</p>
<p>"Noooooo my new fit is gonna get weeeetttttttttt!" Mark cried. He realized soon enough that clothes dry but his phone wouldn't survive. "OH GOD MY PHONE IS GONNA GET RUINED!" There it is.</p>
<p>Ellie spun around to look at him. She was clearly distressed but kept her tone calm, not wanting to freak out Gloria more. "I'm going to die again." She said as monotone as she could, there was a slight wave in her voice but it was close enough to being stable.</p>
<p>Gloria overheard that all too clearly. "WHAT?!"</p>
<p>Before Ellie could explain to Gloria that robots die in water, Mark interrupted them by pointing at a nearby fin that was heading their way. "What the FUCK is that?!"</p>
<p>Steelbeak came nearby their sinking boat, in a fancy (not sinking) boat of his own, with a little toy trumpet and started playing two notes back and forth. Clearly parodying a classic shark song that we don't have the copyrights to mention. He stopped playing long enough to respond."Oh that's a shark! It's a freshwater lake but whatever! They live here now!"</p>
<p>"HOLY SHIT?!" Mark almost dropped his phone. "WHAT THE HELL IS THIS PLACE?!"</p>
<p>"Florida!"</p>
<p>A shark started circling their sinking boat.</p>
<p>Gyro ignored this, continuing to paddle despite it becoming harder by the moment. The boat was halfway in the water and there was only a small wall left to shelter them from the sharks. "Better than Cincinnati." He muttered.</p>
<p>It was getting harder for Ellie to move. If the water reached her neck it was a done deal. She was just going to straight up sink. She started sobbing, not because she was going to die, but because she couldn't keep her promise to Gloria. She had one idea left that probably wasn't going to work but it was worth a shot. "Mr. Steelbeak! I'm going to die!"</p>
<p>"Oh hey again Ellie!" Steelbeak waved at her.</p>
<p>"I'm sorry about the other night." She whimpered. "But please let me on! You can't just let me die like this!"</p>
<p>Gyro turned around and stopped paddling because it was a lost cause at this point. "YOU'RE BETRAYING US?!"</p>
<p>Steelbeak tried his best to hear what Ellie was saying to him but he was too far away. "What? Sorry I can't hear you! Hang on!" He steered his boat closer to their sinking one.</p>
<p>It was in a close enough range for Ellie to grab onto and climb up. "Sorry about this, Mr. Steelbeak." She said before pushing him off the other side of the boat. She turned to her cabin mates. "You all should probably hop on."</p>
<p>"OH GOD MY PHONE!" Mark hugged his soaked phone. "I'M GONNA NEED A REAL BIG BAG OF RICE!"</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Sharks and the Sunset</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Steelbeak held Ellie by the collar of her shirt. "YOU THINK THAT STUNT YOU PULLED WAS FUNNY?!"</p><p>Don't ask how he survived being stranded in a lake with sharks. He just did.</p><p>Everyone was back at the center of camp. 4 boats in total had sunk, 16 people getting eaten by sharks (one of which being that kid Ellie stole the slip of paper from) but that wasn't the main issue here. Thankfully cabin 8 made it to the other side. The group who had come in last jumped back into the water, preferring to be eaten by sharks than being burned at the stake in front of a crowd of people. Understandable.</p><p>"No. I just did what I thought was necessary to keep my cabin members alive."</p><p>"I'D KILL YOU RIGHT HERE AND RIGHT NOW IF I WAS ALLOWED TOO!"</p><p>Ellie was about to ask why not but he answered for her.</p><p>"YOU'RE LUCKY GODGOLD WANTS THIS TO WORK AS A SORT OF HUNGER GAMES!" He leaned closer, gritting his teeth together. "I'll watch you slowly die later on."</p><p>He let her go and she fell to the ground. "EVERYBODY HEAD BACK TO YOUR CABINS! DINNER IS AT 7!" Steelbeak stormed off leaving Ellie in the dirt.<br/>
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>The 4 sat in their bunk beds, roaches still hiding underneath them, as they waited for dinner. It was currently around 5 o'clock according to Ellie's internal clock which meant another two hours of sitting in silence and thinking about how they almost died. Mark was daydreaming about having a working phone, and Gyro was taking a nap.</p><p>Ellie looked across the room at Gloria who was currently hugging herself, her head tucked into her knees. She looked a lot like how Ellie looked the other day in the alleyway but instead of rats it was cockroaches.</p><p>She walked over to sit on the bottom bunk next to Gloria. "Hey." Ellie placed a hand on her knee to get her attention.</p><p>Gloria lifted her head up to look at her "Hey." It was evident she had been silently crying. Gyro hadn't even noticed since he was sleeping and all.</p><p>Ellie frowned. It probably was the morally correct thing to do to ask if she was doing already, but Ellie didn't bother since she already knew the answer. "I think now is a good time to speak with Gyro." She whispered. Before Gloria could respond, Ellie stood up and dragged Mark out the door.</p><p>Mark didn't even bother asking what the hell was going on and followed.</p><p>Now it was just Gloria and a sleeping Gyro. She rubbed a hand down her face and climbed up to the top bunk to sit by his feet.</p><p>She nudged him to get him to wake the fuck up. "Hey, Gyro."</p><p>"What?" He groaned, looking up at her groggily. "I said earlier I don't want to have any of their disgusting, non-gluten-free food." He stopped complaining when he saw the look on Gloria's face. Her eyes were red. She was either smoking weed or crying. There was no smell so it was the latter. He sat up. "Hey." He took her hand in his. "What's going on?"</p><p>This only made Gloria cry harder. She didn't even know where to begin.</p><p>Gyro just stared at her for a few moments. Just like on the train, he had no idea how to handle a girl crying. He took her into an awkward hug, letting her cry it out until she was ready to speak up if she needed to.</p><p>"Gyro… I-I don't know how to tell you this…" Gloria broke the hug so she could look at him in the eyes.</p><p>He sighed, letting her go but keeping his hands on the sides of her arms. "You don't like me, do you?" His mind was set on this being a break up scenario.</p><p>"What? No of course I do, idiot!"</p><p>He let out a breath, relief washing over him. Somewhat. Gloria was still crying. "Then what is it?"</p><p>It took a moment for her to find her words. "Gyro…. I'm pregnant."</p><p>The roaches in the cabin gasped. "Oh my Duck Jesus." One of them said in Chinese. (It's canon the roaches speak Chinese now so…)</p><p>Gyro's mind went blank and his beak fell open. "Wha-" It was like his heart stopped beating. "Wait. How on Earth do you know that?!"</p><p>"Ellie was able to tell. She told me on the train ride here. That's why we went to the bathroom…" Gloria continued to cry.</p><p>"Gloria, I…" If he didn't know how to respond before, he was 10x more screwed now. He took her into a hug again. He immediately felt guilty, knowing that it was his fault. He finally managed a "It's going to be okay."</p><p>Gloria shook her head. "No it's not! Look at where we are!"</p><p>His mouth went dry. His mind had gone so blank he had forgotten the whole Hunger Games Camp Godgold situation. "So that's why Ellie was being so protective of you today…" He trailed off for a moment. "I'm… I'm sorry. It's my fault." Gyro began to tear up too. He let go of Gloria so they were looking at each other in the orbzzz. "I'll make sure nothing will happen. We'll get through this together. I can figure something out, promise. Nothing will happen to you or our child." He crossed an x over his heart like they were in elementary. "Cross my heart, hope to die." And he would've literally hoped to die if it wasn't for the fact he just found out Gloria was totes preg.</p><p>Gloria didn't respond. She continued to cry silently, holding in sobs.</p><p>Gyro held her hands again. "Do you- do you even want the kid? Because if you don't it's okay." He's chill with abortion, just so you know. ;)</p><p>"I don't know, Gyro. I'm not ready for any of this and I'm not ready to have a kid. God- I just don't know what to do!"</p><p>Gyro didn't know what to do either. He pressed his forehead against hers. "That's okay, you don't have to know right now." He spoke softly, which no one thought he was capable of. "We're going to figure out a way out of this hellhole. You managed to break out of Agartha so nothing can stop you. And I'll be right by your side." It was bad timing, but Gyro tried to add in a joke. A sweet one. "We can leave Mark behind." He was serious too.</p><p>Gloria finally cracked a smile. Anything relating to Mark suffering was funny in her book. "Yeah.. Thank you, Gyro. I love you so much."</p><p>"I love you, too." He said. "I'll be by your side the whole journey and never leave." He laid a hand on her cheek and took her into a soft kiss. He pushed her back delicately onto the bed, leaning his forehead against hers again. "I won't let anything happen to you."<br/>
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>Mark and Ellie sat on the side of cabin 5. She insisted that they should give Gloria and Gyro a good amount of space, but they still needed to be out of sight for the most part considering there were God Bots everywhere, not allowing anyone to leave their cabins except the poor souls that had to use the old porta potties.</p><p>Mark found a pretty cool stick and started to draw phones and other random shit into the dirt. "Why are we outside again?"</p><p>"Gloria needed to speak with Gyro privately." Ellie said. Currently she was folding leaves into tiny origami cranes.</p><p>He scoffed "They could've done that outside and we could've stayed in the cabin."</p><p>"It's more complicated than that." She handed him a leaf crane. "Try to be understanding." She pointed to her origami masterpiece. "Also, I named that one Bradley."</p><p>Mark dropped the nice origami crane on the dirt. "I hate the outdoors…"</p><p>"Why would you do that?" Ellie picked up the origami crane like he just stomped on her favorite cabin cockroach. "That one was my favorite." She glanced over at his dirt drawings. "Why do you hate the outdoors so much? You seem to be enjoying making soil art."</p><p>Mark stabbed the ground with his stick. "I hate everything about the outdoors! There are too many bugs and dirt and nature! The outdoors took my phone away and now I'm stuck with nothing to do in this hellhole of a summer camp!"</p><p>"Well, you have me to talk to." She handed him the origami crane named Bradley a second time.</p><p>He sighed. "Thanks." Mark took the crane, not wanting to hurt her feelings. But he highkey didn't want to touch the leaf fearing there were bugs on it or something. He had a little episode getting ants off the stick he was previously using.</p><p>Ellie was embarrassed about it but she decided to tell Mark anyway. "I enjoyed our kiss before we got kidnapped by Mr. Steelbeak."</p><p>"Yeah I know… god, what a himbo." He picked up his stick again and started poking a nearby ant hill.</p><p>She didn't respond and laid her hand on top of his since they were just sitting awkwardly by the bushes outside of a random cabin. Ellie was still bad at trying to be romantic.</p><p>Mark flinched his hand away and shot her a look. "Nooooooo your hands are dirty!" He wiped the hand that Ellie just touched on his shorts.</p><p>Ellie was even more embarrassed now. "Oh, uh, okay." She decided to be blunt with him again. "I just wanted to pick up where we left off last time."</p><p>"But you're all sweaty and gross! And I guess so am I now because I've been exposed to the elements!"</p><p>"I don't sweat. Only you do." She pointed out. "But, I just thought-" She stopped herself and gave up. "Nevermind."</p><p>Mark looked at her again. "What?" All of the ants from the ant hill were pissed off now.</p><p>"No. It's stupid."</p><p>Mark turned his body to face her but he was still poking at the ground. "No no what were you going to say?"</p><p>"Well, I just thought… I don't know, I didn't think I would get this far..." Ellie knew what she wanted to say but had no idea how to word it. "I was surprised that I enjoyed the kiss as much as I did earlier. I didn't think I was capable of being able to experience that." She looked away from him, not expecting him to respond since he was sort of caught up in his hatred for nature.</p><p>Mark smirked before leaning forward to kiss Ellie again like how he did in the alleyway. The kiss was brief but passionate. "Like that?" This dude acted like he was so smug but he also had a goofy grin and was a blushing mess.</p><p>"...yes." She looked down, shyly. "Do you...maybe...want to take this somewhere else?"</p><p>Mark looked around their surroundings "Like, where? There's nowhere to go except the beach."</p><p>Ellie didn't know what he was talking about until she remembered the lake, where they almost died, had a sandy area. "You mean the lake?"</p><p>"Yee! The beach tag is really popular on Instagram!" Remembering that he no longer had access to Instagram made him sad again. He sighed "Instagram…"</p><p>"Only if you want to. I understand now that being romantic outdoors… isn't your thing."</p><p>He shook his head "No no no outdoor romance sucks, but the beach is romantic! Instagram said so!"</p><p>Ellie smiled, nuzzling her head into the crook of his neck before whispering "If Instagram said so then it must be true." She started to get excited, her metaphorical blood rushing since she knew no one else would be there. It would be private.</p><p>"Obviously." Mark turned his head and kissed the top of Ellie's before getting up off the dirt. He helped Ellie up before letting go of her hands to brush off his ugly shorts that he, for some reason, liked.</p><p>Mark and Ellie started walking hand in hand to the beach when Mark realized that the sun was starting to go down, making it a golden hour. Perfect Instagram time. He was never so excited to see the sun but he forgot again that his phone was soaked so he couldn't capture it. There was no one at the lake. Probably because it gave everyone PTSD. Mark led Ellie to the center of the beach. He wasn't too happy about sitting in sand but he tried not to think about it too much. Not that he really thought a whole lot to begin with. Ellie sat and leaned towards him, resting her head on his shoulder again. Mark smiled and wrapped his arm around her, letting his hand rest on her side. He thought that this was such a great moment and he wished that his personal photographer who would sometimes follow him all day to take photos of him was there.</p><p>"It's so beautiful here…" Ellie whispered</p><p>"I think you're beautifuller."</p><p>Ellie looked up at him, confused. "That's not a word."</p><p>"Oh."</p><p>The two watched the sun slowly set while watching the lake that shone and glittered, enjoying (with slight trauma) the several shark fins that poked in and out of the water.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Sorry for the lack of an illustration this chapter. Most of you probably don't mind but just in case you do!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Cockroach Kyle</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>After the last of Mark and Ellie's many makeout sessions… alongside other things they did that night, Mark insisted on going back to the cabin. Ellie refused, telling him Gyro and Gloria needed to be alone tonight because they were going through something. Obviously she didn't tell him what that something was but he was pissed nonetheless, throwing a major tantrum before falling face first in the sand to scream before eventually falling asleep like that. Ellie couldn't tell if he was breathing or not but she didn't check.</p>
<p>Ellie didn't shut down that night, not finding a reason to. She enjoyed watching the night sky considering she hadn't seen it all that much sense the majority of her life thus far was spent underground or being dead and/or shut down :). She also enjoyed observing many of Florida's strange creatures and ended up forming a bond with one particular one, being able to understand it's weird tongue. Something a normal person wouldn't be able to hear but she could because robot stuff.</p>
<p>It was currently 5 AM, the sun wasn't exactly up yet but the sky was lighting up beautifully. She crawled over to Mark, with her animal friend in hand, and started poking his head to wake him up. It wasn't working so eventually she just smacked him.</p>
<p>"OW!" Mark jumped to a sitting position, spitting out sand and rubbing the back of his head in pain. "Ellie, what the FUCK was that for?!"</p>
<p>Ellie had her hand behind her back so her little friend couldn't be seen by Mark. "Good morning." She greeted him, completely ignoring his question.</p>
<p>"Morning?! The sun isn't even up!"</p>
<p>"You know how I want a child badly? For command purposes." Ellie did have a command to follow at the moment, watching after Gloria and her unborn child, but that wasn't a 24/7 thing with Gyro around and she needed something more.</p>
<p>"Yeahhhh?" Mark was annoyed at the fact that he slept face first into sand. He spent the entire time rubbing his arms trying to get all the sand off of him. God he hates nature!</p>
<p>"I solved the issue and found a child for us to raise." She knew Mark didn't like kids but she didn't really care at this point because she was so desperate.</p>
<p>The first thing that came to mind for Mark was that Ellie literally stole a child from somewhere in the camp. He was not expecting a huge ass cockroach the size of her hand.<br/></p>
<p>She held him up disturbingly close to Mark's face. "This is Kyle." Ellie wasn't very creative with names. "He's a Eurycotis Floridana, a large floridian male cockroach. I bonded with him last night and was able to teach him some english. I came to the conclusion that we will raise him together." She placed the roach in his hands.</p>
<p>Mark screamed and threw little Kyle into the air before scooting away from Ellie. "WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?! GROSS!" He grabbed fistfulls of sand as a way to clean his hands off.</p>
<p>Ellie screamed, horrified, and jumped five feet, hitting the ground hard as she held out her hands to catch Kyle. She did just by a hair. Holding Kyle close to her chest, she turned to Mark with her eyebrows furrowed. She was pissed. "Mark! How could you do that to him!? He's your kid!"</p>
<p>"Uh NO he's NOT! It's a fucking BUG and I HATE- no no LOATHE BUGS!" Mark kept his distance, not taking his eyes off of Kyle. Kyle blinked in response.</p>
<p>"You made him feel negative emotions." She frowned. Mark thought she was crazy but she actually could hear Kyle and his Chinese (with some english) ramblings. Ellie walked over to him but held Kyle away from Mark's reach so he wouldn't hit him. "You know I need this, Mark." she pleaded. "Please understand."</p>
<p>"Yeah but… a cockroach?! Couldn't you have a kid that's like an orange or whatever the hell grows in Florida?! WHY a cockroach?!"</p>
<p>Actually, Ellie didn't have a direct response to that. She shrugged. "Just because I think he's nice." She held the roach up to Mark again, but didn't place it in his hands. "Be his father, please. I won't be able to look out after him all the time."</p>
<p>Mark shivered, imagining bugs on his back and shook his head. "Hell no! I'm sorry, Ellie, but I don't want to be anywhere near that thing!"</p>
<p>Ellie sighed, placing Kyle on her shoulder and walking to the other side of the very small lake beach. She sat down and huffed before burying her face into her knees. The average person would think it was stupid, obviously because it fucking was, but all Ellie wanted was a family. Really badly. Gloria was even getting one and she wasn't even sure if she wanted the kid yet and if Ellie was being honest with herself, it kind of hurt her, even if she understood.</p>
<p>Kyle told her she didn't need Mark, but Ellie ignored him. Mark wasn't the one to blame, it was just her stupid programming. She couldn't be mad at him.</p>
<p>Mark sighed before getting up himself to go follow her. He sat down next to her again but still kept his distance because Kyle was on her shoulder. "Are you mad at me because I don't like bugs?"</p>
<p>She looked at him and shook her head. "No, I'm not mad at you. I understand." She said. It sounded petty but she truly wasn't intentionally trying to guilt trip him at all. Ellie didn't have enough malice to do that. "I know it shouldn't be that big of a deal, but I'm just upset I don't have the ability to birth a child of my own. And Gloria being pregnant just reminded me of that…" Her eyes immediately widened and she slapped a hand over her mouth, knowing she had just broken one of her commands, Gloria had given her, on accident.</p>
<p>Mark gasped dramatically. He scooted closer despite Kyle still being there for the conversation. "You have tea?!... ON GLORIA?! TELL!" Too bad the little bastard didn't have his phone. He would've gone apeshit if he did. Kyle crawled onto Mark's back without him noticing.</p>
<p>Ellie removed her hand from her mouth and shook her head no. "I didn't mean to say anything! I promised Gloria I wouldn't!"</p>
<p>"BOOOOO! TELL MEEEEEEEE!" He gave Ellie a thumbs down gesture. He really wanted some new tea but honestly, don't we all?</p>
<p>She already fucked up so it wouldn't matter if she told the whole story now anyway, right? "Fine, but you can't tell anyone." She pointed out, but in a whisper even though no one was by the beach anyway but whatever. "On the train, I noticed Gloria's body language and chemistry was off so I scanned her because I was worried something was wrong with her health… but I ended up getting myself involved in her personal business on accident and found out she was pregnant… with Gyro's kid…"</p>
<p>Mark gasped again "NOOOOO!" man he was thriving! This man really loved his tea and you already know he's going to bother the shit out of Gloria and Gyro more so now.</p>
<p>"Mark," Ellie took his hand out of desperation. "Promise me you won't tell anyone. I mean it. I know you like gossip but please don't."</p>
<p>"Well I don't have my phone so even if I wanted to, I can't…"</p>
<p>"Just don't say anything to Gloria or Gyro, okay?" Before Mark could respond, Ellie started looking around. "Where's Kyle?"</p>
<p>Mark looked around quickly before getting up "Don't know and don't care. C'mon, let's leave before he finds us again."</p>
<p>"I don't understand why you hate him so much. Cockroaches aren't capable of harming you. Can you please be supportive of me? I really need-" She cut herself off when she noticed Kyle on top of Mark's shoulder, waving at her with his little Chinese-floridian cockroach hand. "I need you to stay calm." Ellie remained where she was, too afraid that if she moved, Kyle would move too and make the situation even worse by running all over Mark.</p>
<p>Dread washed over Mark. He knew why she told him to stay calm… He looked over at his shoulder and saw Kyle who was honestly just vibin' as cockroaches do. He screamed and yeeted him into the lake! "GOD WHY DOES EVERYTHING BAD HAPPEN TO ME?!"</p>
<p>"Kyle!" Ellie raised her voice more than she ever had before. Even during her fight with Glomgold all that time ago before he turned her voice off. Technically Mark did but that's another story.</p>
<p>"SCREW KYLE! LET'S GO!"</p>
<p>She ignored him, running into the water. She was about waste deep when she stopped. "I can't get him…" Ellie whispered to herself. Turning to Mark in desperation, she cupped her hands around her mouth so he could hear her. "Mark! I can't get him or I'll die! You need to save him!" She was beginning to panic, more so than during the shark situation yesterday.</p>
<p>"NO! Just get out of the water and find another child! Maybe one with less legs!"</p>
<p>"GODDAMNIT! FUCKING SAVE HIM, MARK!" Not only was that the first time she swore in frustration, but also the first time she screamed in all caps. Mark knew that.</p>
<p>He sighed and took off his non-existent shoes along with his ugly camp shirt before going into the shark infested lake just to save a damn roach. Yep, this is your average Ducktales fanfiction for ya.</p>
<p>"Get out of the water, Ellie. I'll get the stupid little bastard…" he grumbled, moving past Ellie. She silently agreed and backed up onto the sandy shore again. Mark grabbed a hold of little Kyle and walked back onto shore, peacefully handing him back to Ellie. "There's your stupid cockroach…"</p>
<p>Ellie laughed in relief, hugging Kyle as much as she could without crushing him to death. She put Kyle on her shoulder and ran up to Mark to give him a hug. "Thank you, Mark! I owe you big time!"</p>
<p>"Mmhmm" He put his shirt back on. "Can we just leave already? I hate the beach when it's not instagram golden hour. It counts as nature again."</p>
<p>Ellie nodded and they walked silently down the trail back to where the cabins were, which was surprisingly a pretty long ways away. Hopefully they would make it in time for breakfast when Steelbeak did a roll call or whatever they did at camps. They walked in silence for a while before she looked at Mark again. "Listen, I know you hate bugs, but he's an organic just like you." Taking a risky move, Ellie gently placed Kyle on Mark's shoulder again. "Will you please raise him with me? He needs a dad."</p>
<p>Mark flinched when Ellie placed Kyle on his shoulder. He looked at the bug with disgust then back at Ellie. He didn't want to hurt her feelings but he really didn't like bugs… or Kyle for that matter. He sighed before giving Kyle a small pat on the head "fine..."</p>
<p>Ellie clasped her hands together. "Oh good, then you won't mind carrying him the rest of the way."<br/>________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________</p>
<p>Gloria and Gyro sat at an old wooden table. The camp alarm had gone off at 6:00 AM on the dot and they were all escorted to the dining hall by God Bots.</p>
<p>Neither of them were too happy. The wood was brittle and gave them both an unimaginable amount of splinters already. And the food didn't look too good either. Gloria couldn't tell what it was. Her best guess was it was eggs and toast? But it was hard to tell which says a lot, especially about the toast.</p>
<p>They all had signed in as they walked in for attendance so the guards and Steelbeak could make sure everyone was there.</p>
<p>Gyro looked up at Gloria. "Are you doing okay this morning?" The two of them hadn't mentioned last night's conversation on the walk over.</p>
<p>"I would be if I knew what kind of food this was." She poked her food with her plastic spork that looked like it was previously used. "How about you?"</p>
<p>Gyro cleared his throat. He hadn't exactly come to terms with that fact she was pregnant yet. It felt like a fever dream. He decided to say something stupid back. "I would be too if I had my science equipment. I've never been away from technology this long." He grunted in his usual snarky tone because we can't keep him too out of character. "I think I'm going to pass on the food. I can identify wild berries later on for a sustainable meal."</p>
<p>"Does Florida even have wild berries? This place is a hell hole, how can anyone live here?"</p>
<p>He shrugged. "Don't know. Don't care. If there aren't berries, there's oranges. If there aren't oranges, there's insects. I watch a lot of survival channels in my free time."</p>
<p>Gloria cringed "I'd rather eat this shit than eat a bug willingly."</p>
<p>"Suit yourself." Gyro noticed that neither Mark nor Ellie had showed up yet and sighed in relief. He didn't want to talk to them. Maybe if they were late they would be executed? Gloria wouldn't like that (on Ellie's behalf) but he sure as hell would. Gloria hadn't said anything so he wasn't going to bring it up. "By the way." He pointed to her food. "I believe it is waffles and vegetarian sausage."</p>
<p>She looked at her food again "HOW?!" She stabbed one part of the mesh that they called food and took a small bite out of it. "It… tastes like a waffle? I dunno it's weird."</p>
<p>"Still not having it." Gyro said, poking at his food just because he had nothing else to do.</p>
<p>She really didn't want to eat anymore of this crap either so she started playing with it too. "Hey… about last night. Are you doing okay? Just with everything?"</p>
<p>Gyro gulped. He hoped she wouldn't bring it up because he didn't have a good answer. He wanted to say "absolutely not" but that wouldn't make her feel any better. "Yes," He said as confident as he could. "I'm handling it quite well, thank you very much." That's all he could manage to say and even that wasn't good.</p>
<p>Gloria wasn't buying it but she wasn't going to fight him on it. "At least one of us is…" She rested her head on her hand.</p>
<p>Snapping his head up, he looked at Gloria, taking his attention away from whatever they called food here. "What's going through your mind?" When she didn't respond he corrected himself. "Do you want to talk about it again?"</p>
<p>"No I guess not…" Gloria sighed, still unhappy.</p>
<p>"Hi." Mark groaned, sitting down beside them with Ellie. He had a tray of food, and surprisingly so did Ellie as well. His normal greeting would be "SUP BITCHES" but he still wasn't too happy about the roach situation and the fact that he slept in sand all night.</p>
<p>"Good morning." Ellie smiled.</p>
<p>Gyro groaned as well because they actually showed up and would not be getting executed. "Hi, Mark." He snapped.</p>
<p>Ellie wanted to ask how their talk had gone last night but she didn't. She didn't pick up on social cues, sure, but she knew not to do that at the very least. She took Kyle off of Mark's shoulder and put him on her tray of food so he could eat. She laid her head down on the table so she could see him at eye level. "Do you like it?" She asked him.</p>
<p>Gyro cringed. "What the hell?"</p>
<p>"Don't ask." Mark snapped back at him.</p>
<p>Ellie picked up her head and looked at Mark. "He likes it very much." She picked up Kyle and placed him on Mark's tray. "Do you want some of your father's?" Kyle scattered underneath his "waffle".</p>
<p>Mark was the next one to cringe. He slid his tray aside, not wanting to eat anymore. "Man… the food looked good today too!" He whined and rested his head on the semi-broken table.</p>
<p>As Kyle was munching on Mark's food, Ellie turned her attention to Gloria. "Are you doing alright?"</p>
<p>Hearing Ellie say that it reminded Mark about the tea he heard earlier. Despite him being exhausted and grossed out from Kyle, he started to laugh at Gloria's expense.</p>
<p>Gloria, who was in no mood to deal with Mark in another prison setting slammed her spork on the table, causing a dent. "Do you have a fucking problem this morning, Beaks?!"</p>
<p>Ellie looked at Mark, horrified at what was probably going to come next. She should've known he was going to say something.</p>
<p>"Pft, nah. I'm just amused by your dilemma." He pointed his spork at her and continued to laugh.</p>
<p>Gloria turned her attention to Ellie. "YOU TOLD HIM!?"</p>
<p>This only made Mark laugh harder.</p>
<p>"I did not mean to! It just slipped out during our discussion on the beach! I told him not to say anything."</p>
<p>Mark shrugged, still laughing. "What? I didn't say anything, did I?"</p>
<p>"YOU!" Gyro slammed his hands on the table and leaned in toward Mark, grabbing him by his shirt. "YOU WILL STAY OUT OF THIS!"</p>
<p>Mark smirked "Only if you stay out of Gloria!" He pointed at Gloria before laughing again.</p>
<p>"OH! AND YOU DID NOTHING WITH A DAMN MACHINE WHEN YOU WERE GONE LAST NIGHT?!"</p>
<p>Gloria was angry at Mark, sure, but she really didn't have the energy to fight him now. She tried to block out their arguing by resting her head with her arms on the table. She made a mental note to fight Mark later.</p>
<p>"GOOOOOOOD MORNING, CAMPERS!" Steelbeak announced, throwing his arms in the air. The cafeteria went silent. "I hope you all slept well last night."</p>
<p>Gyro let go of Mark. "Oh, Duck Jesus, here we go."</p>
<p>"EVERYONE OUTSIDE!" He pointed toward the exit. "TOTEM POLE! NOW!" Steelbeak may have been a complete himbo, but damn he could sound scary when he wanted to.</p>
<p>Everyone groaned and got up from their tables. Gloria made a point to jab Mark on the side while she got up from her seat. Everyone slowly scrambled outside where Steelbeak was waiting. He's a pretty tall guy so everyone was able to see him.</p>
<p>And yes, Ellie did make sure to grab Kyle. She also took a spork because she thought it was cool.</p>
<p>"Sooooo is everybody ready for today's challenge?!" He pumped his arms in the air.</p>
<p>No one said anything. Unless you count Huey crying.</p>
<p>"I can't hear youuuuuuu!"</p>
<p>Still nothing.</p>
<p>Steelbeak put his arms down "Fine, whatever. Some of you assholes are going to die anyway." He took out another piece of paper, written by Godgold himself. "Today you will be forced into a boxing match against someone from an enemy cabin. Lose and you have to swim through the shark infested waters. No lifevest. No boat. Make it to the other side and you don't have to worry about dying today. Got it?" He pointed back toward where the lake was.</p>
<p>Gloria's face went white.</p>
<p>"Everyone gets a number. The person who has the same number as you will be your competition. Go grab a card." He pointed to God Bots who were holding pink index cards. The God Bots also now had kilts for some reason. Obviously in honor of their God-like dictator.</p>
<p>Della groaned, turning to her kids. "Man, we gotta deal with this shit at 7:00 AM? Goddamn."</p>
<p>Huey looked up at his mother. "I'm- I'm gonna lose, mom!" He choked.</p>
<p>She looked down at him. "You can swim, yeah?"</p>
<p>Huey nodded.</p>
<p>"Then swim really fucking fast."</p>
<p>"Thanks for the pep talk, mom."</p>
<p>"Anytime, Hubert."</p>
<p>Ellie turned to Mark, worried. "Do you think Kyle needs a card?"</p>
<p>Mark had a mental image of him wrestling and killing Kyle in today's match but it seemed too far-fetched and silly. As if the current situation wasn't silly. "No probably not."</p>
<p>The four approached a large God Bot, being handed their numbers. Mark got 69 and laughed.</p>
<p>Ellie laid a hand on Gloria's shoulder. "I'll figure something out, okay? You can trust me." She actually had no idea what she was going to do to protect Gloria, but she knew Gyro was too much of a pussy to step in if her match got ugly. Ellie's only worry was that she had no idea what the penalty for stepping in in a fight was. She didn't care, as long as Gloria didn't get punished as well. Worst case scenario, Mark would be left to care for Kyle. She turned to Mark. "You promise you'll take care of Kyle no matter what, right?"</p>
<p>"Nothing's going to happen to you or that little creature."</p>
<p>"He's your son, not some creature." She stated, matter-of-factly.</p>
<p>The boxing arena was very cliche looking, the kind you see in cheesy movies and in that one Spongebob episode. You know the one. ("my name's not RICK!"). Where it was exactly, no one was too sure. It was far off a path by a swamp.</p>
<p>Gyro's main concern was an alligator approaching. Oh yeah, and Gloria.</p>
<p>The four sat next to one another on benches that were set up, like they were watching a small town mini baseball game or some shit. The metal was really rusted and it looked like the support would give out at any moment. If you got cut there were no tetanus shots. Sucks to suck.</p>
<p>Ellie sat down between Mark and Gyro, working as a barrier. She placed Kyle on his shoulder again, wanting them to bond. Kyle protested to her, cursing, but she scolded him back.</p>
<p>The matches weren't that entertaining at first, each appointment being scared to even start or throw a first move. Those ended pretty quickly. But as the matches continued, people started getting more into it. More desperate to win and survive. Those were the ones that lasted a good amount of time and grabbed Mark's attention. He cheered, but the scene only made Gloria grow more worried.</p>
<p>"NEXT UP!" Steelbeak announced. "NUMBER 51!"</p>
<p>A large, muscular dog guy stood up. Eye patch, tattoos, scars. The whole shabang. Gyro could only think of him as a mixture between a pirate and a gang member. How classy. He chuckled before turning to Gloria. "This is going to be good. Whoever is going to be against this guy won't even have a chance to swim with the sharks."</p>
<p>Gloria tried to ignore that statement before quietly getting up herself. Given the circumstances, she honestly would've had a chance given how apeshit she was with fighting people all the damn time but it was different this time.</p>
<p>Gyro's beak flew open. "Wait! WHAT?!"</p>
<p>"WHEWWWW!" Mark cheered, standing up. God, he wished he had his phone so bad. Karma was hunting down Gloria. This was what she got for beating him up in prison.</p>
<p>Ellie didn't say anything and watched with anxiety building up inside of her.</p>
<p>Entering the ring, Gloria cracked her knuckles, trying to seem as intimidating as possible.</p>
<p>Pirate-gang-dog-guy cracked his neck in return, so hard that it was amazing that it didn't snap in half.</p>
<p>Steelbeak walked up to Gloria, though he was still outside of the ring. "Hm. Don't think you're going to win this match, do ya? Boat stealer." That was the best insult he could come up with. Ellie technically stole the boat but Gloria was along for the ride.</p>
<p>"Go piss off and come back to me when you have something clever to say." She spat back at him. She was trying to get herself angry so maybe there would be some sort of a fight.</p>
<p>Steelbeak scowled in response. He nodded at a God Bot to ring the bell that signalled the match.</p>
<p>And so it rang.</p>
<p>Pirate (that's his name now) charged immediately, saliva flying everywhere as his mouth flung wide open. Excitement was in his eyes. Dude was really into this which was kinda fucked up. Guess he fit in with Camp 'Gold just fine.</p>
<p>Gloria screamed, missing his swing by a hair. She fell onto her side, protecting her stomach as best as she could. Gyro took notice of this and covered his mouth, trying to think of anything he could do without putting his or her life at risk.</p>
<p>There was a God Bot wearing a cute little apron who was passing out complimentary popcorn to which Mark happily took all of.</p>
<p>As Pirate stood over Gloria, she swung her leg up, kicking him in the stomach to buy her time to roll out of the way before his fist hit the ground, breaking through the floor. She scrambled off the floor and backed herself into one of the corners of the ring. She wanted to flee so badly but knew she would be even more screwed when a God Bot got a hold of her.</p>
<p>"You think you can win this?" Pirate mocked as he charged again. Gloria sunk to her knees, crawling through his legs as he ran into the side of the arena, falling onto his back. He growled before jumping up faster than Ellie's little cockroach son could run.</p>
<p>He grabbed a hold of her, swinging her onto her back so he was above her, holding her by the neck. "Say goodbye, pip-squeak-"</p>
<p>Blood splattered onto Gloria's face. She didn't know what just happened, all she saw was Pirate falling to his side, grabbing at his neck as life was sucked out of him. A pool of blood approached her and she scooted back, getting to her feet in shock.</p>
<p>She looked beside her and there was Ellie, covered in even more blood. She had taken the spork she had on her from breakfast and broke it in half to create a sharp end, stabbing it right through his neck before he had the chance to hit Gloria.</p>
<p>Everyone in the audience started whispering to each other. There was a very loud "boooooo!" coming from Mark who had stuffed his face with popcorn.</p>
<p>Steelbeak bawled his fists and stepped into the ring. "What in Duck Jesus' name did you just fucking do?!"</p>
<p>"I did the challenge. I was in the ring, I defeated the appointment, and I won. There were no rules given that stated I could not do otherwise."</p>
<p>Steelbeak gave Ellie a look before, surprisingly, shrugging it off. "You got a point. Alright you two, get off the ring already we are behind schedule!" He pointed to the exit with his thumb.</p>
<p>Ellie helped Gloria out of the ring. "Red goes well with your complexion." She added, bluntly.</p>
<p>Gloria hugged Ellie tightly saying "thank you" over and over again. Gyro sighed in relief and covered his face with his hands. This man is stressed to the core at this point. Mark was still pretty pissed off. Despite that, Ellie hugged her back.</p>
<p>"No prob, Bob."</p>
<p>Gloria let go, giving her a strange look.</p>
<p>"Mark taught me that saying."</p>
<p>"It sounds like him." That wasn't a compliment.</p>
<p>Needless to say, that day Ellie killed Mark's opponent and (reluctantly) Gyro's as well. She also killed Huey's since he was crying like a wimp.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Glomgold's Master Plan</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>3 months had passed. 3 months of Glomgold being dictator. 3 months of executions. 3 months of hell. The city of Duckburg had fallen into an apocalypse, sadly without the zombies. ⅓ of the city's population had died from either the weekly executions or the rapidly spreading Virus known as Covid-19 (it's still relevant when we're writing this so please don't tease us umu). Glomgold, still not understanding that it was a virus, believed that he had actually started to gain god-like powers of some sort because of how stupid he was.</p><p>Citizens prayed to giant statues of him daily, hoping for the virus to stop and their family members to be saved, for their sins to be redeemed. Flowers, among other donations, were left at his giant, concrete feet.</p><p>Due to the rapid population decrease, many businesses had shut down, food and electricity became rare. The only time TVs were turned on was during Glomgold's daily digital and mandatory church services and his announcements. Those who were still alive learned how to play the bagpipes and painted their face with a plaid pattern.</p><p>Sure, he wasn't the greatest ruler and his people were suffering, but he was now richer than Scrooge McDuck because of all the money donations he was given to spare the people from Covid, so like, he was doing pretty swell. Obviously he couldn't stop the spread but he didn't care about that either. To him, his 'powers' were just that strong.</p><p>"GOOD MORNING, SCROOOOOOGIEEEEEE!" Glomgold barged into Scrooge's cell that was located inside his city hall, now deemed his dictator headquarters. Behind him stood a God Bot, a robot that basically replaced Ellie for him since she wasn't around to serve him anymore. Thankfully, this God Bot didn't talk back and was way less annoying. And the bot had a cool ass kilt like Glomgold himself. Glomgold was also sporting a new kilt. It looked like his normal kilt that you see in the show except now it's GUCCI! He also got himself some new gold chains but he kept those bad boys tucked under his shirt. "DID YA HEAR I GOT POWERS NOW?! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHHA! I REALLY AM A GOD AND THE RICHEST DUCK IN THE WORLD!"</p><p>Scrooge groaned. He would've thrown his head back in annoyance if it wasn't for the fact he could barely lift his head. He didn't get a good night's sleep on the concrete floor while being chained to a wall. "You don't have powers, Glomgold. It's an epidemic. Duck Jesus."</p><p>"SHUT UP! IT'S MEEEEEEE WRATH!" He paused. "God Bot, what's an epidemic?"</p><p>God Bot didn't respond because Glomgold commanded him not to talk, something Glomgold had forgotten he had ordered.</p><p>"FINE! DON'T RESPOND!" He huffed before turning back to Scrooge. "Want an update on your family, Scroooooogie?" He rubbed his hands together, menacingly and smiled widely. "They've swam through a lake of sharks, witnessed executions, did parkour over lava, battled to the death, AND worst of all they had to sit through an entire late 80s soap opera!"</p><p>If the God Bot could talk he would've gasped.</p><p>Scrooge's eyes narrowed. "How COULD YOO! I thought you were better than this! Leave me family be!"</p><p>"NEVER! MUAHAHAHAH!" He threw his hands in the air before he cockroach crawled over to Scrooge to get all up in his face. "I will make them suffer everyday 'til they're on the brink of death, then burn them at the stake. Just like I will do to you, Scrooogie." He bopped him on the nose.</p><p>Scrooge spat on Glomgold's new Gucci fit.</p><p>"AH! ME KILT!" Glomgold kicked Scrooge in the face. "No meals for you today." Before Scrooge could respond or curse or whatever he was going to do, Glomgold left, slamming the door behind him. "God Bot, get me meh phone!"</p><p>Got Bot obliged, pulling out the new Waddle phone to hand to his master.</p><p>Glomgold dialed up random numbers until he got who he needed. "HELLO?!"</p><p>"Dictator Godgold?!"</p><p>"OH THANK ME! YOO HAVE NO IDEA HOW MANY MEDAMNED NUMBERS I HAD TO DIAL!"</p><p>"I thought you had me on speed dial?"</p><p>Glomgold paused for a second. "WOT?!" The only person he had on speed dial was a pizza joint but it sadly closed due to everyone who ran it dying from COVID-19.</p><p>"Speed Dial?"</p><p>"SHUT UP, STEELBEAK! I NEED AN UPDATE ON THE CAMP! NOW!"</p><p>Glomgold couldn't see, but Steelbeak had lit up on the other end. "It's going great! People fell and burned in lava yesterday! And the day before that they had to wrestle crocs, and the day before that-"</p><p>"YEAH YEAH, DON'T CARE!" Dictator Godgold spat, some of his saliva going on his bot. The bot lowkey cringed cuz that shit nasty. "Are McDuck's relatives still alive?"</p><p>"Yee."</p><p>"WOT?!" Glomgold pinched in between his eyes. "Wot about Mark and the rest of those bitches?"</p><p>"Yee."</p><p>"WOT?!" Glomgold kicked over a nearby plant. If that plant could cry, it would have. Cockroaches scattered from underneath the door's crack that led to Scrooge's cell. "IT'S BEEN 3 MONTHS AND YOO MEAN TO TELL ME THEY'RE ALL STILL ALIVE?!"</p><p>"Yee! A lot of other people died though! But don't worry, there's still a lot of death to go around with the new batch of campers we got last week!" Steelbeak chimed.</p><p>The dictator paced around the room, his Gucci kilt swaying in the non-existent wind. Suddenly he got an idea. He smirked. "I know…."</p><p>"Yee?"</p><p>"I got new powers. I'm the one who started COVID-19! I'LL START IT AT THAT CAMP WITH ME BRAIN POWER MUAHAHAHAHAHHA!"</p><p>"Yee?"</p><p>"SHUT UP!" Glomgold wanted to strangle Steelbeak but the only thing he could do at the moment was cut his paycheck in half. Yeah, he'd just do that. "That sickness will get to every single person." He forgot Ellie was a robot but that would be a future problem.</p><p>"A sickness?" Steelbeak rubbed his chin. "You know, after the new batch of campers came in, a few people had started coughing around the camp!"</p><p>"MUAHAHAHAHHA! IT'S ALREADY WORKING! GOOD JOB, ME!" Glomgold gave himself a high five. "Anyway, keep me updated. I have to go to my own church service. Tonight my worshipers are making finger paintings of me!" He hung up the phone before combing his beard and leaving his Gucci headquarters.</p><p>
  
</p><p>______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>3 months had passed at the camp and after yesterday's lava challenge, no one in cabin 8 was able to sleep. Though none of them spoke to each other at the moment, needing a mental break and all. It was about 3 AM if Gloria had to guess. She could've asked Ellie but it was too quiet in the room for her to want to speak up. It would be too awkward.</p><p>Mark, who was bored as hell without his phone, looked over to the other side of the room where Gloria was laying. "You've gotten fat, Glo." It was a mystery why he wasn't dead yet. Over the course of weeks he had gotten stabbed, shot, and bitten by sharks. Yes the sharks were responsible for all of those injuries.</p><p>Gyro had a pillow over his face to block out the screaming cicadas outside so he luckily wasn't able to hear Mark's obnoxious comments. That meant he couldn't back Gloria up but she could handle herself.</p><p>"I'm "fat" temporarily, Mark, but your stupidity is permanent."</p><p>Mark, ignoring her insult, started laughing. "Oh yeah! I forgot you were #preggers with an idiot's baby! HAHAHAHAH!" He covered a hand over his face, turning over in his bed. On a side note, he hadn't forgotten she was pregnant, he just wanted to fuck with her because that's Beaks for you.</p><p>Gloria was too tired to respond and turned away from him as well.</p><p>Ellie, in the bunk below Mark, was petting Kyle. She didn't mind the camp that much considering she had orders to follow and a cockroach child to tend to 24/7. Needless to say, Ellie was having a pretty good time. The only thing that stressed her out was protecting Gloria and Mark.</p><p>"You're bored aren't you, Kyle?" Ellie whispered to him before giggling in a weird robotic way. "I have a solution." She pulled out a phone, the same one Mark had given her all that time ago, from under her pillow. It had been there the past few months for safe keeping. "I can teach you Mario Kart just like your father taught me in prison." Perhaps she wasn't all that sane being in Camp Godgold after all. At Least she had a kid. Sort of.</p><p>"What?!" Mark poked his head down to see what she was talking about. "HOW LONG HAVE YOU HAD YOUR PHONE ON YOU?!" His eyes widened, like a moth to a light.</p><p>Ellie looked up at him. "The whole time we've been here." She stated before turning back to the app to show Kyle.</p><p>"YEET!" Without any hesitation, Mark snatched Ellie's phone from her and laid back down on his bed so he could play Mario Kart instead.</p><p>"Mark, I know technology is important to you but me and Kyle were playing a game together." She crossed her arms even though he couldn't see her anymore.</p><p>Mark was so fixated on the phone that he didn't even hear her. Ellie sighed and climbed onto the top bunk to sit by his feet.</p><p>"If you want the phone so badly then you need to play with Kyle."</p><p>Gyro covered his face tighter with his pillow "God shut the fuck up, both of you!"</p><p>Mark ignored him. "Fat chance. I haven't even seen the twitter icon in months! I need my fix!"</p><p>"Mark, I feel like you aren't even trying to be a good father." She said directly.</p><p>"I'm not a cockroaches father, now leave me to my social media! I have so many memes to catch up on!"</p><p>Ellie started crying. Raising a child in a death summer camp made her a little dramatic as of late and to say she was annoying the rest of the cabin was an understatement. She threw Kyle (yes, she threw the child) at Mark before going to the bottom bunk to face the wall.</p><p>Mark screamed which made everyone else scream at him for being too fucking loud!</p><p>Gyro sat up, slamming his pillow back onto the bed. "ALL OF YOU SHUT THE HELL UP! WE DON'T CARE ABOUT YOUR PARENTING ISSUES! LET GLORIA TRY TO SLEEP!"</p><p>"HE STARTED IT!" Mark pointed to Kyle who crawled down to vibe with Ellie again.</p><p>Gloria sighed. "It's fine, Gyro. I'm used to this by now."</p><p>"I'm going for a walk with Kyle." Ellie stated before taking Kyle and leaving the cabin.</p><p>Gloria looked around the cabin at all the cobwebs and Mark with his new phone pressed up against his face. She sighed before turning over in her bed to try to get some sleep before 6 AM.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. The Plague</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Cabin 8 sat at the same breakfast table they always did. Eating the same questionable waffles that were a different color every day.</p><p>"Mark," Ellie said, while poking at the food she wasn't going to eat. She just got it for Kyle as usual. "I'm sorry about our fight last night. It was my fault."</p><p>Mark winked into the phone, taking a selfie that he was captioning '#SummerCampLife!' "Uh Huh it's cool."</p><p>Gyro, ignoring the two obnoxious people of the group, laid his hand on Gloria's. "Did you manage to sleep at all?"</p><p>Gloria shook her head no. "Did you?"</p><p>He sighed, knowing no sleep wasn't good for the baby. "No. I didn't." He eyed the two across the table in annoyance. "Honestly, Glo." Yes, he started calling her that now. "We should ask about switching cabins."</p><p>Mark was listening in on their conversation like the little bastard child he was. "God! Finally! Just leave already!" He took another selfie with the flash on.</p><p>Gloria muttered "Steelbeak wants us to suffer…"</p><p>Gyro laid his head on his hand, knowing Gloria was right. "Yeah…"</p><p>3 months stuck in a cabin together didn't make any of them happy.</p><p>"GOOD MORNING, CAMPERS! I GOT A BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!" Steelbeak entered the chat. "ALL COMPETITIONS AND CHALLENGES WILL BE CANCELLED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE!"</p><p>Gyro spit out his morning black coffee that was 100% shit. "WHAT?"</p><p>Steelbeak wasn't able to hear Gyro's question since everyone either gasped or asked the same thing.</p><p>"I know. I know. It's a sad day for all of us. But I spoke to our lovely dictator and he believes you all deserve some time off. Enjoy the camp as you will!" He didn't even bother to answer any questions or clarify anything before leaving the hall to do whatever he did in his freetime. Probably sharpen his beak or something.</p><p>Some people started clapping from the news. Others cried, like Huey, and one or two people coughed.</p><p>Ellie turned to the group. "I don't believe this is right. Malice was evident in his voice." She voiced before putting Kyle in her front pocket of her dad shorts. She may have been stressed but she still was observant.</p><p>"Pfttttt, who cares! C'mon Ellie, let's get away from these losers so I can take some hot selfies." He grabbed her, dragging her off before she could give further warnings to both Gloria and Gyro.</p><p>Gyro huffed. "God, finally."</p><p>_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>Ellie, knowing Mark needed a break from Kyle, dropped the kid off at the cabin before going on a hike Mark so desperately wanted to go on. She thought this was rather strange since he had such a hatred for nature, she expected him to want to stay in the cabin all day or something similar.</p><p>"Mark, you told me you hated nature. Why do you want to go on a hike?" She asked.</p><p>Mark gestured towards the sky while sitting on a cool rock. "Perfect lighting! And I will need more selfies than ever because I've been off the grid for so long! I need to get my social media schedule up and running again! You understand." He struck a pose on the rock waiting for Ellie to take a photo of him.</p><p>She snapped a shot. "I do not understand." She said before showing him the photo. "Is that the quality you desire?"</p><p>He scrolled through the photos only to realize that she only took one photo and it was blurry. "Ugh, noooooo you gotta take like, 7! And keep the phone steady too! My fans deserve quality photos of me!" He went back to the rock and posed again.</p><p>Ellie nodded, taking much more than 7 shots. Around 50. "I was serious earlier." She started. "Something is very wrong here. It is out of character for Glomgold to order Steelbeak to cancel all deadly activities."</p><p>Mark didn't respond and kept on going into different poses. "Don't worry about it!" He finally got up and snatched the phone away to see how his photos looked.</p><p>She continued on. "Something very bad is going to happen but I don't know what. We are not on some vacation, it has to be something much bigger than that. You have to believe me. I'm worried for you and Gloria." Pausing, she thought for a moment. "Not so much Gyro. But that is off the topic."</p><p>He started deleting some of the photos that he didn't like and posting the ones that he did on his Twitter with a caption 'lolz sorry for lack of tweets! Lost my phone but anyways here's meh on a rock because I rock and so do you! B)' He finally responded to Ellie who was patiently waiting on him to respond back. "If they got rid of the deadly challenges, then what could be going wrong?"</p><p>Ellie sat down on the rock beside him. "It means that something much worse is going to happen. Perhaps they'll poison the food or set the camp on fire or maybe release a deadly gas…" She tried to think of something else that was probable. "Maybe Steelbeak will slowly get us to turn against one another and we end up being the ones to kill each other off."</p><p>Mark shrugged and started going to another spot on their hike to take another photoshoot with Ellie following behind him. "I dunno. I guess that could happen? I would try to not worry about it, dig? Hey, could you take another photo of me?"</p><p>"How could we not worry about it? Our lives are at stake!" Ellie took the phone from him as he began to pose again. "I think it's already happening. We're getting irritated with all the other campers and each other after being in close quarters for 3 months. That is probably what he wants to happen."</p><p>Mark wasn't fully listening. "Ohhh yeahhh true. Gyro and Gloria irritate the shit out of me. Anyways, should I have my shirt on or off for this one?"</p><p>"Off."</p><p>He winked and took off his shirt and posed.</p><p>
  
</p><p>"Last night is a perfect example." Ellie brought up. "Not only are we fighting with Gloria and Gyro again, but we're also fighting between us." She gestured to the two of them. "I know our relationship has been unstable in the past but this time it's not our doing, it's the camp's doing." Ellie knew she was going into conspiracy theory mode, but she was set on finding an answer, no matter how far fetched. "Maybe they knew I wanted a child so they set up Kyle at the beach knowing you would not appreciate that. And maybe they purposely ruined your phone so when you found out I still had one we would fight over the phone because of Kyle. The two conflicts set up a figurative bomb just before he announced we were challenge free and would be forced to spend more time with each other!"</p><p>Mark got up and took the phone again to check out his new sexy photoshoot. "That seems pretty far fetched, Ellie. Just relax and enjoy the mini vacation inside of this nature prison!" Mark wasn't really buying anything that Ellie was saying and he didn't want it to be true. The man just wanted a vacation and a good phone connection.</p><p>"I will admit that I do enjoy all the commands I've been given here recently but this is a prison set up by Glomgold for goodness sake."</p><p>Mark nodded as a response. He held up his new phone and showed Ellie one of the photos she just took. "Do you think this one is any good?"</p><p>She huffed and walked a few feet away to lean on a tree.</p><p>Mark followed. "Woah, Ellie, what's wrong? Was the picture that bad?!"</p><p>"No, you look exquisite." She reassured him. "I just want you to believe me. That theory was absurd but it's not impossible. Maybe he's driving us apart because he wants to start an actual Hunger Games of some sort. Do you honestly think Glomgold would want us to just have fun after everything he's done?"</p><p>"I guess?"</p><p>"You guess?" She looked over at him before sighing. "You're right. I'm overthinking it. I suppose I'm just worried about us breaking out into a fight again. That has happened too often and I'm afraid of losing you."</p><p>Mark frowned before wrapping his arm around her. "What? No no no Ellie, you're not going to lose me!"</p><p>She smiled, hugging him back. "Thank you."</p><p>A group of campers walked by and one of them coughed aggressively on Mark while passing.</p><p>"#EWWWWW!" He let go of Ellie, dramatically wiping at his clothing like that would get the germs off. "People at this camp are absolutely disgusting."</p><p>"Calm down, it's probably just-" She paused, inspecting him closer. "I don't recognize that bacteria."</p><p>"THERE'S BACTERIA ON ME?!" He looked down at himself, not sure what to do to get the bacteria off. He cringed at the thought of all the germs on him.</p><p>"Well, of course. There is bacteria on all of us all the time. Most of which keep living creatures healthy, but…" She pointed to where the camper had coughed. "That isn't healthy bacteria, nor is it something I know of such as a simple cold or the flu. It's something...new." Ellie gasped, looking up at him. She was now very concerned. "That's what is wrong. They're spreading a disease throughout the camp!" Putting her hands on her hips, Ellie sighed. "Well, gosh. My previous theory was very off."</p><p>Mark finally started freaking out. "WELL WHAT SHOULD I DO?!" He held his hands up.</p><p>"I'm not sure. I've never dealt with disease."</p><p>"Oh fuck this!" Mark charged towards the lake and dove in. He totally forgot about the sharks that were somehow still alive.</p><p>______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>Gyro and Gloria walked along the beach, holding hands, before seeing Mark frantically run into the water while screaming. Ellie started yelling from behind at him to get out before he got eaten by sharks.</p><p>"Looks like we're going in the other direction." Gyro turned around and the two headed to another trail in the woods. "I swear, we never get time alone anymore. This is nice. I'm sure Steelbeak is up to something but I cannot stress enough how much I do not care."</p><p>Gloria sighed and leaned against his arm while they walked. "Yeah, you're right. He's definitely doing something shady for not killing us."</p><p>Gyro stayed silent for a few minutes as they walked peacefully down a mosquito infested trail. "I know the camp is surrounded by God Bots, but what do you think about trying to figure out a way to escape? Just the two of us. Leave all of this behind and just start a life somewhere else. No prison, no Mark or Ellie, no dictatorship, no death…"</p><p>"Wait, so we would just leave Duckburg and all of our friends behind?" While that did sound like an ideal life, she wasn't on board with just leaving everything behind and being on the run for the rest of their lives.</p><p>"I'd be more willing to go back and fight for Duckburg if it weren't for the fact you're going to have our child. I can't put you in danger like that. Being here is dangerous enough, but Duckburg?"</p><p>She sighed again. "I dunno, Gyro… I'm all for trying to escape Camp Godgold but what about your job? Your lab? Everyone who is captured and or dead because of Glomgold? We can't just do nothing."</p><p>"I know. All of that is important to me, but desperate times means desperate measures. We need to do what we have to to survive. You have to understand."</p><p>"I understand that you're kind of being a huge pussy right now."</p><p>He let go of her hand and turned to her, crossing his arms. "Excuse me? I'm doing what's right for the child. If we didn't have this going on," He gestured to Gloria up and down. "Then I'd be more than happy to play hero! But we can't do that now, now can we?" He snapped. "Do you know how hard it's been trying to protect you?!"</p><p>Gloria crossed her arms too. "Uh what?! When have you been protecting me? That's all been Ellie!"</p><p>"No it has not! That robot is nothing but danger, her morality circuits are obviously not wired correctly!" He pointed back to the beach, though it was out of sight. "I've been getting Mark to leave you alone, I've been making sure you're eating the correct amount of calories and are not malnourished, I volunteered to drink that mysterious liquid for you on that one challenge that was not good by the way! I think it was cat piss!"</p><p>Gloria narrowed her eyes at him. "Okay tell you what, Gyro. We are going to escape this place and I'm going to figure out a way to get back to Duckburg! If you want to protect me then you have no choice but to follow me."</p><p>"I do have a choice! I will not allow you to go back!"</p><p>Gloria's jaw dropped. "You won't allow me?! Who the fuck do you think you are?!"</p><p>"The father of your child! You think it's such a great idea to go off and play nice with enemies before going to save the day from an insane dictator! You are an idiot! I am the only one with common sense around here! And, my god, I hope the child does not have your IQ!"</p><p>Gloria began to tear up but she was still pretty pissed off. "At least I have a heart and I care about my friends, you asshole!"</p><p>"Well you obviously don't care about the child! Who's the asshole now?!"</p><p>"Still you! God, how could you even say something like that?! Of course I care about our child, Gyro!"</p><p>Gyro narrowed his eyes. "You know what? We're not leaving. We're staying in this hell hole of a camp and that's that. I know you'll just end up getting yourself killed if you decide to go be the protagonist. What do you think this is? Some fantasy where everything works out perfectly in the end? This isn't some mary-sue fanfiction!" He approached her, digging his finger accusingly into her chest. "You wanna leave so bad? I won't stop you after the baby's delivered. Then you can go ahead and do whatever the hell you want, without the child! But I am not taking my eyes off of you until that happens!"</p><p>Gloria wiped her eyes before covering her mouth to cough. "You're such an asshole, Gyro! You can't force me to stay in this death camp! I'll leave with Ellie and leave you here with Mark if I have to!..." She paused for a moment. "You were supposed to be on my side here, remember!?"</p><p>"I am on your side! I don't want you to get yourself killed! I'm doing what's best for you! That robot knows nothing but violence, she'll get you killed if you decide to leave!"</p><p>"Oh right and staying here won't get me killed! Despite there being a deadly challenge every single day! And as for Ellie, she has shown me more kindness than you have!"</p><p>Gyro backed up trying to conjure something else to say that didn't lead him to rambling in circles. "We've survived thus far! We can do it for another 6 months! Look!" He gestured around them and did some weird little spin for emphasis. "We're on break! No deathly challenges! So let's just drop the whole escape plan, kay?" He started walking again, as if that was enough to drop the conversation.</p><p>"But I don't want to stay here any longer! I want to go home!" Gloria stayed where she was and coughed again.</p><p>"Home? Home is another version of this place but worse!"</p><p>"All the more reason for us to fight back! C'mon Gyro! Why can't you fight for Duckburg again?!"</p><p>"I told you already! Because I want to keep you away from danger! And if I have to keep you in a deadly summer camp to keep you away from even more danger I will!"</p><p>Mark came running down the path, screaming with his arms in the air. He bumped into Gyro and started rubbing his own body all over him in a really strange manner. "TAKE THE GERMS! TAKE THEM! GET THEM OFF OF ME!"</p><p>Ellie ran up from behind. "Mark stop! You can't get rid of it like that, you'll only spread it!" She pulled Mark off of Gyro.</p><p>"AND SPREADING IT TO HIM IS A BAD THING BECAUSE…?!"</p><p>Ellie shrugged. "You do have a point."</p><p>"What the hell are you two idiots talking about now?!" Gyro snapped as he brushed off the sand that Mark left on his shirt.</p><p>"There's another plague! We're all going to die! It's medieval times all over again but in a child's summer camp with bad wifi!" Mark fell on the sand and made a sand angel, thinking that would help.</p><p>Ellie stepped in, ignoring Mark crying on the ground. "A camper coughed on Mark while we were taking photos for his Twitter and I could not identify the bacteria on him. I came to the conclusion that Steelbeak has stopped all challenges because he desires us to die from a second black plague."</p><p>Gyro sighed. "Great… now could you leave us alone? We were kind of in the middle of something here!"</p><p>Gloria coughed into her hand again.</p><p>"OH GOD! SHE'S FUCKING INFECTED! GET HER AWAY FROM ME!" Mark stood up, cowering behind Ellie.</p><p>"Shut the fuck up, Mark! Just get out of here already!"</p><p>Ellie scanned Gloria again. "Yes. You are indeed infected. It is rather bad." Short, sweet and to the point.</p><p>Gloria gave Ellie a confused look. "What are you talking about? Infected with what?"</p><p>"The disease that I cannot identify is spreading around the camp. Mark calls it the second Black Plague. The only symptoms I have noticed from others is coughing, but it is most likely only the beginning." She looked at Gloria again. "You are running a fever."</p><p>Gyro turned to Gloria in panic. "Gloria, oh Duck Jesus, I-" He went silent, not knowing what to say as he began to hyperventilate. He squatted on the ground, covering his head with his hands.</p><p>Gloria put her hand on her forehead to see if she was burning up. Ellie was right. With everything going on she just didn't notice how badly she felt. She crouched down to get on Gyro's eye level but she was too scared to touch him in fear that it would be contagious. "Gyro, it's okay! Calm down!"</p><p>"Calm down?! I- I just said terrible things and now you're probably going to die. I can't protect you no matter what I do! God, I'm terrible!" He started crying.</p><p>Ellie looked down at him. "You are. I do despise you."</p><p>Gloria gave Ellie a look to tell her to tone it down a notch. There was always a time and a place to bully Gyro but now wasn't it. She turned her attention back to Gyro. "We don't know that! It's probably just a fever! I'll be okay just like you said, alright?"</p><p>"Oh no. There is a high probability you will die." Ellie added. "The best I can do is take you back to the cabin so I can keep a close eye on you both."</p><p>Mark gasped. "I could die?! B-but… I haven't reached 48 million followers on Twitter yet! I can't die!"</p><p>"Come on." She helped Mark up. "Let's go back to the cabin and you can work on your Twitter success rate before your possible death. I will keep you as healthy as a can." Yeah, her voice was monotone and boring as per usual, but she truly was more worried than ever. However, she knew her showing too much emotion would only cause them to panic more.</p><p>Gyro wiped his eyes and stood up again. He held out his hand to Gloria. "Now isn't a good time for me to apologize. We can get to that later. For now we should head back to the cabin too. Ellie's right."</p><p>She nodded, getting tears in her eyes again. "Yeah…" Gloria got up, not taking Gyro's hand, not because she was bitter (even though she always was) but because she didn't want to spread whatever it was she had. "I don't want you to get sick either."</p><p>Gyro sighed as he kept a close eye on her on the walk back to the cabin.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. This Is The Weirdest Chapter</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Gyro reentered the cabin with two cups of water in hand, something Ellie had requested for him to get for both Mark and Gloria. A few days had passed and whatever sickness they had come down with became worse very quickly. The symptoms were very similar to the flu but more severe to put it lightly. The porta potties were of much use to Mark and Gloria much to their dismay. Not that they managed to care anymore with how delusional they were getting.</p><p>The rest of the camp wasn't doing too hot either. Gyro had managed to stay healthy thus far by washing his hands frequently at the outdoor sinks, but that could only work for so long with the current crisis.</p><p>Ellie took the water from Gyro thanking him, and yes, Kyle was on her shoulder as usual. She sat beside Mark on the bottom bunk and held the water up to him. "Mark, you need to drink. You're dehydrated."</p><p>"NO! I DON'T WANNA!" Mark smacked the water out of her hand, the cup spilling on the floor. The roaches under the bed happily scattered out of their hiding to drink from the puddle. Ellie sighed. That was the fifth cup today.</p><p>"I WANT TO DRINK! IMMA THIRSTY HOE AND I WANT VODKA!" Gloria laughed at her own weird joke.</p><p>Gyro handed her the cup. "Here's you vodka. Drink up." He lifted up her head so she wouldn't choke on it again and throw up everywhere like yesterday.</p><p>Mark whined trying to get up from his bed "What?! She gets vodka?! No fair! I want vodka!"</p><p>Their delusional speech was getting worse by the hour, as well as their fevers. Although Ellie kept her tone calm, she was starting to have a mental breakdown too. There was no medicine in the camp, not even over the counter pharmacy pain medication.</p><p>Ellie lightly pushed down Mark onto the bed again. He wasn't able to fight it with how weak he was. "You did have vodka," She lied, pointing to the puddle. "But you spilled it all over the ground."</p><p>Mark paused for a moment before yelling again "WELL CAN I GET MORE?!"</p><p>"WE HAVE MORE VODKA?!" Gloria tried to get out of bed too.</p><p>Gyro freaked out, waving her down. "No no no. Don't do that!" He caught the cup, preventing it from slipping from her hands. He turned to Ellie, worried. "What are we even doing? They won't even drink anymore!"</p><p>Not responding, Ellie rested Mark's head on her lap before laying a hand on his forehead. She frowned. "You're running a fever of 115 Farenheit."</p><p>"Is that a good thing?" Mark asked.</p><p>"Absolutely not." She scolded before turning to Gyro. "Gyro, this is deadly. We need to find medicine or they aren't going to make it. Even if it's just simple painkillers. Anything."</p><p>Ellie's desperate tone didn't make him feel any better. "Where?! We've asked everyone! The few campers that did have medicine got them taken away from the God Bots as soon as they arrived at camp."</p><p>"That means they're storing it somewhere."</p><p>"Somewhere we can't get to!" Gloria began choking on her "vodka" again and Gyro had to catch her from falling over, patting her back. "Duck Jesus. They're losing it."</p><p>"Losing what?" Gloria and Mark said in unison. Gloria gasped "oh my godddddd JINX!"</p><p>"We are practically twins!"</p><p>"I know, right?! We are such good friends we finish each others…"</p><p>Mark was silent.</p><p>Gloria finished her own sentence. "Sentences! God we are really good friends, right Mark?"</p><p>"Totally! And I think you're supppper hot, even if you're fat and make me want to gag most of the time."</p><p>Ellie glared at him but didn't say anything.</p><p>Gloria smiled and put a hand over her heart. "Oh my gosh that is the nicest thing anyone has EVER said to me! Thank you, best friend!"</p><p>"BFFs!"</p><p>"OKAY THAT'S IT!" Gyro stormed over to Ellie, leaving Gloria to play with her now empty cup of water. "You got some sort of plan or what?" He demanded.</p><p>Ellie thought for a moment before cringing. "I believe I know where they're keeping medical equipment if they have not thrown it out already."</p><p>"WELL ARE YOU GOING TO TELL ME WHERE?!"</p><p>She closed her eyes and let out a metaphorical breath. "With Mr. Steelbeak. He probably is taking precautions to keep himself healthy so he must have some supplies on him."</p><p>Gyro nodded to himself, pacing around the room. "Okay. Maybe you aren't that stupid. But that still leaves us a problem."</p><p>"How are we going to-"</p><p>"How are we going to get in! Jeez. Think much?!"</p><p>"Yeahhhh! Don't you guys even think?!" Gloria butted into the conversation. This made Mark laugh.</p><p>Ellie didn't comprehend that was an insult from Gyro, but rather an actual question. "I do think much, actually." She mentioned before continuing with her newly formed idea. "Me and Mr. Steelbeak know each other so perhaps I may convince him to lend some to us."</p><p>Gyro scoffed. "You mean after you pushed him over the side of the boat? Yeah, right!"</p><p>He did have a point. "Alright…" She hummed to herself while she thought. Mark told her to shut up but whatever. "You're correct. He knows I'm a machine who has no need for medicine and there is no way he would willingly hand over some for Gloria and Mark. However, I could distract him long enough for you to sneak into his headquarters."</p><p>"Alright. That's the plan. We're leaving. NOW!" He grabbed Ellie dragging her out the door. He suddenly stopped. "Gloria, Mark. If you leave this cabin, you're GROUNDED!"</p><p>Gloria and Mark screamed "NOOOOOO!" at the both of them as they left the cabin.</p><p>Ellie ripped her hand away from Gyro. "Give me a moment." She took Kyle off of her shoulder. "Kyle, I need you to watch over Gloria and Mark for me. If anything goes wrong come find us. Understood?" She said all of that in Chinese, Gyro shooting her a weird expression.</p><p>Little Kyle gave a salute before crawling down and heading back to the cabin.</p><p>"Okay, now we can go."</p><p>Gyro rolled his eyes. "Whatever. I can't believe we're teaming up."<br/>_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>"GLOOOORIAAAAAAAA!" Mark started singing a large variety of songs containing her name.</p><p>"YEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSS?" Gloria sang back at him. Her pitch was very very off but who cares!</p><p>Mark rolled off of his bed, landing in the water puddle below, face first. He continued across the floor to be closer to her. Once Mark arrived at her bed, he crawled on to lay beside her. "ARE YOU PREGANOTOOO? CUZ YOU ARE FAT!" He pointed to her and giggled.</p><p>Gloria looked down at herself "YEAH I AM!"</p><p>"OOOOH!" He clapped his hands together like a four year old going to Disney. Or a Disney obsessed adult. "WHAT ARE YOU GONNA NAME IT!? YOU SHOULD NAME IT MARK!"</p><p>Gloria gasped "MARK IS THE PERFECT NAME! What if it's a girl though?"</p><p>"MARK!"</p><p>"GREAT IDEA! See, this is why we are such good friends!"</p><p>"You know," He laid his head on her shoulder and hugged her. "I don't understand why we fight so much because we are BESTIESSSS!"</p><p>Gloria hugged him back and started petting the top of his head. "I knowwwwww! Let's promise to NEVER fight again okay?"</p><p>"Pinky promise?" Mark held out his thumb.</p><p>"Pinky promise!" Gloria shook Mark's thumb as if it was a hand shake.</p><p>"PFFFT THAT'S NOT HOW YOU PINKY PROMISE!" He playfully hit her. "WAIT A SECONDDDDD! WHO'S THE DADDY?!"</p><p>"You know! The tall one who keeps giving us vodka all the time!"</p><p>Placing his hands on his cheeks, Mark gasped over dramatically. "NOOO WAY! YOU ARE WAY OUT OF HIS LEAGUEEEEE!"</p><p>Gloria laughed "I know, right?!"</p><p>"After this fun camp place we should go to Olive Garden again and bring our Waddle computers to play Minecraft!"</p><p>Gloria gasped as if that was the best thing she's ever heard. "YEAHHHHH! AND WE CAN HAVE A SLEEPOVER!" She screamed right in his face.</p><p>"CAN I INVITE- uhhh…" He rubbed a finger on his chin. "OH YEAH! CAN I INVITE ELBOW?!"</p><p>"Of COURSE you can! Awwww! I LOVE Elbow!"</p><p>"I KNOWWWWWW! BUT SHE'S UPSETTI SPAGHETTI YOU ARE HAVING A BABY AND NOT HER, YOU KNOW?!"</p><p>"Woahhhhhhhhh really?! Wait… I'm having a baby?"</p><p>"WAIT….ARE YOU?!" Mark screamed. Suddenly Kyle crawled onto his chest. "O-M-GGGGG KYLEEEE!" He picked him up and hugged him. "GLORIA, THIS IS MY SON!"</p><p>"YOU HAVE A SON?! HOW DID I NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS?! HIIIIIIIIII KYLEEEEEEEE!" Gloria waved to Kyle. Kyle waved back. But it was a chinese wave. I don't know what that means.</p><p>"I LOVEEEEE KYLE!" Mark gave him a little kiss uwu. "DO YOU WANT TO HOLD HIM?!"</p><p>Gloria sat up from her bed, rocking back and forth. "OKAYYYYYYY!" She held out her hands to hold him.</p><p>"Kyle," Mark started patting his head while Gloria held him. He proceeded to give him another kiss. "I've been sooooo mean to you. I'm sorrrrrryyyyy. I've been a bad daddddyyyyy." The middle of his sentence had turned into a song.</p><p>"AWWWW! No you haven't Mark! Kyle LOVES you! He just said so!"</p><p>Mark continued singing. "HE DIDDDDDD?!"</p><p>"YEAH! I can speak bug, remember?"</p><p>He paused. "I think so…? OH WELL!" He rolled off of Gloria's bed and started making "snow angels" on the floor. "WHERE ARE OUR ?!"</p><p>Gloria flopped over on her bed and dropped Kyle on top of Mark. "Our whaaaaaatttt?"</p><p>"THE PEOPLE WE LIKE! I THINK WE LIKE THEM!? I DUNNO! THE PEOPLE WITH US BUT AREN'T WITH US RIGHT NOW!"</p><p>"OOOOOOHHHHHH THOSE GUYS! Yeah I dunno! I think they went to get us more vodka!"</p><p>"OKAYYYYY!" Mark passed out, Kyle falling asleep on top of him like a little puppy.</p><p>"Heyyyyyy! I wanna sleep too!" Gloria fell off of her bed onto the floor thinking that that was the only place to rest. She grabbed her pillow from her bed and curled up next to the other cockroaches nearby.<br/>_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>Ellie bawled her fists. Not from anger but from all the fear building up. She had no idea how Steelbeak was going to react when seeing her, nor did she know how she was going to distract him. She lifted a hand and knocked on his office door without saying anything. Hopefully he would respond first.</p><p>It took a few moments but his office door finally opened. Steelbeak looked down at Ellie with an unamused look. "What?" This was Gyro's cue to sneak into his office through the window while he was distracted. He had to search through all the cabinets so it was going to take a few minutes at least if he didn't want to make any noise.</p><p>Ellie had no idea 'what'. She gulped, figuratively as usual. "Hi, Mr. Steelbeak." She had forgotten how tall he was when in close quarters. "We haven't spoken in quite some time so I was wondering how your evening was going so far."</p><p>He started tapping the door frame impatiently. "It's fine. Is there something you need, because I'm a little busy right now." He snapped. He would've been more civil towards her if it weren't for their awful Red Lobster date.</p><p>She flinched, hoping he didn't notice. But he did. Ellie knew why he was pissed at her and she didn't want to bring it up but she had to. "I wanted to apologize to you, privately, for being rude to you on our date. It has been bothering me."</p><p>"Oh?" He crossed his arms and leaned against the doorframe.</p><p>That response didn't give her much to work with. Plus she was a bad liar since that wasn't a part of her programming so she was screwed. She looked quickly behind Steelbeak to see if Gyro was making any progress and it was barely any from what it looked like. "Yes. I behaved inappropriately…?"</p><p>Steelbeak rolled his eyes. "Whatever… Look I don't have time for this so why don't you just go back to your cabin or better yet go swim with the sharks." Steelbeak pushed himself off the doorframe to turn around and shut the door before Ellie quickly grabbed his hand.</p><p>"No no!" Steelbeak turned to her again, looking at her hand and then back up at her. He wasn't entertained in the least. Yet. "I still am fond of you. Mark is unintelligent and you are not."</p><p>As much as he loved hearing how smart he was, he wasn't quite buying it. "But you said I was dumb at Red Lobster!"</p><p>"I was lying because I was intimidated by your superior looks." Ellie squeezed his hand tighter. She hated that flirting was the only thing that worked on this guy. This better not get too out of hand too quickly.</p><p>He smirked. "Oh yeah I guess I kind of have that effect on the ladies. So are you dumping Mark for me now?"</p><p>Ellie nodded her head vigorously. "I already dumped him. I could not take being separated from you." Yep. This was getting too out of hand too quickly. She jinxed it.</p><p>"Wow really?" He honestly could not get enough validation! He grinned at her.</p><p>"Absolutely." The smile she gave was strained.</p><p>"Well I guess we could always go on another date sometim-" Steelbeak was cut off when he heard a noise coming from his office. Gyro accidentally closed one of the drawers too loudly. He had all the medicine that Gloria and Mark needed in his hands. Steelbeak was about to turn around to see what caused the noise making Gyro freeze in place.</p><p>Panicking, Ellie grabbed a hold of his face and slammed his mouth onto hers creating a long, and very uncomfortable, kiss come to fruition. Gyro made a disgusted face before quickly yeeting himself out of the window and heading behind the office building where he planned on meeting back up with Ellie.</p><p>Ellie opened one of her eyes to make sure Gyro was gone before releasing Steelbeak and breaking their kiss.</p><p>Steelbeak blushed "Wow that was-"</p><p>"Well gosh dangit, look at the time." Ellie looked at the watch she didn't have. "I need to recharge. I must leave. What a lovely chat. Goodbye." She turned, quickly leaving the building and wiping her mouth while doing so. Now she had to worry about running into him around the camp again. Great.</p><p>She turned the corner to see Gyro and all the meds. "Did you get everything?"</p><p>Gyro took a second look at everything before nodding. "Yeah I believe so." He handed half of the medicine bottles to Ellie as they walked back to their cabin.</p><p>Ellie stacked the bottles in the nook between her arm and her body. "You will not speak of what just happened to Mark. Understood? I will not hesitate to slice your scrawny throat open before your child is born. Your decapitated head will be Gloria's baby shower gift."</p><p>"I hear you loud and clear and I won't say anything!" He had never heard her give a threat before and it honestly scared the shit out of him. He had seen too many evil robots, you guys.</p><p>"Good. You're already on thin ice as is."<br/>_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>Gyro and Ellie entered the cabin to see Mark and Gloria snuggling on the floor in a puddle of water. Kyle was also sleeping on Mark's shoulder.</p><p>Ellie sighed, looking at Gyro. "We should wake them up to give them their medicine."</p><p>Gyro didn't even need to be told that. He went over and kicked Mark in the head, hard.</p><p>"OWWWWW!" Mark jumped up, rubbing his head in pain. Kyle jumped off his shoulder and scuttled over to Ellie in fear for his life. Gyro practically squashed his ass.</p><p>Gloria woke up from Mark's baby-like screams. "WHATTTTT?! Is it Christmas already?" She rubbed her eyes.</p><p>"Yep. It's Christmas." Gyro knelt down beside her, holding out a cup of "vodka" and fever medicine. "And these are your gifts."</p><p>Gloria gasped. "Ohhhh myyyy god! I'm so sorry I forgot to get you something!"</p><p>"It's fine. There's always next year." Before she could respond, Gyro shoved the pills down her throat before pouring the water down with it, most of the liquid going on her face.</p><p>She gagged. "HEY! WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!"</p><p>"It's a christmas tradition to shove gifts down people's throats." Gyro didn't realize how wrong that sounded until after he said it.</p><p>"No, that's Hanukkah!" Mark chimed in. He just had his fever medicine and water, thinking it was also a Christmas gift.</p><p>"Come now, Mark." Ellie helped him stand up. "You need to go back to bed and get some rest. Santa Claus will be very upset if you do not."</p><p>"But I was already asleep on the floor! The floor is comfyyyyyy!" He already fell back onto his bed with Ellie helping to pull the covers over him.</p><p>"The floor is not good for your joints which Santa also does not like."</p><p>Gloria tried to stand up but fell back onto the floor. "WHERE THE FUCK IS SANTA?!"</p><p>Gyro groaned. "He left because you were sleeping on the FLOOR WITH MARK! SANTA DIDN'T LIKE THAT!"</p><p>Gloria almost started crying. There weren't any tears but she acted like she was sobbing her eyes out. "I missed Santa?! DAMNIT!"</p><p>He pulled the covers over Gloria, tucking her in. "No no!" He took back what he said immediately. "He'll come back as long as you are good and stay in your bed."</p><p>"Oh... Okay!" Gloria turned to her side and immediately fell asleep.</p><p>Ellie turned to Gyro. "I believe I need to shut down for a bit."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. Glomgold's Glorious Return</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"I didn't mean anything I said to you last night." Mark snapped. He laid on the bottom bunk of the cabin with his hands on his stomach.</p><p>Both him and Gloria were self aware again, their fevers a lot better than they had been 12 hours prior. But still recovering from the mysterious plague. Even so, the memories of last night's conversation when they were out of it haunted the both of them.</p><p>To make things more awkward, it was only the two of them in the cabin if you didn't count Kyle resting on Mark's shoulder. Mark was too tired to even be grossed out anymore.</p><p>Gyro was currently getting water for the both of them while Ellie was taking a stroll. She claimed she liked seeing the corpses in body bags pile up outside because the concept of death interested her.</p><p>"Ugh same here! It was only the plague talking!" She snapped back. She hated that fever her was actually friends with him! God, they even snuggled. She almost threw up just from thinking about it. Or she wanted to throw up because she was both sick and pregnant but who cares.</p><p>"I hope it affects you and Gyro's disgusting creation." Mark was referring to the sickness. He had turned to face the wall so he didn't have to look at her, almost crushing Kyle. In fact, he did land on Kyle but it's not like cockroaches can be crushed that easily so he was good.</p><p>She scoffed, not sure what to really say to something so cruel. "Wait… why are we even fighting? Weren't we on good terms after Agartha?"</p><p>Mark stayed silent for a while because he didn't have an answer. Why were they anyway? He shrugged even though she wasn't looking over at him and made up an answer so he didn't seem stupid. "I guess it's because you're dating that fucker." He pointed to the door as if Gyro was standing just outside.</p><p>"You're serious?! That's the only reason? God you're so bitter…"</p><p>"Well, duh!" He scoffed. Man, he had to come up with something else too. He was bitter, that was true, but there had to be other reasons. "I don't know dude," he finally admitted. "Maybe because you were mean to both me and Ellie for a while and I can't get over it? Who knows. I don't care either way."</p><p>"Well it wasn't like you were a saint to me or anything…" She sighed. "Okay, can we just have a truce or something already? It's kind of tiring to always bicker with you. Especially when we really don't have a whole lot to be mad over."</p><p>Mark finally looked over at her. Kyle scuttered out from underneath him and clung to the wall. "Bleh," He stuck out his tongue in disgust. "Even if we do have a truce it's not like your 'lover' will leave me the hell alone. So what's the point?"</p><p>"What if I tell him to lay off? Then would you stop?" Gloria knew that Gyro would still probably want to kill him 24/7 but whatever. The least she could do was offer to try.</p><p>"You would do that?"</p><p>"Sure! I'll talk to him about it today if you want!"</p><p>He turned again so she couldn't seem him sigh in relief and smile. "Alright. But I'm only agreeing because you can make a killer build in minecraft. So I'll stop pestering you for now. #BFFs." That last part was sarcastic but the majority of his comment was sweet so it balanced out.</p><p>"When we get home we can build a giant Glomgold statue on your server and burn it up!"</p><p>Before Mark could agree, ecstatically at that, Gyro busted the door open holding two bottles of water. He chucked it at Mark's face. "Take your damn water."</p><p>"OW, WHAT THE FUCK!? I'M STILL SICK!"</p><p>"Well guess what, Beaks! I'm sick, too! Sick of you and your bullshit!" He walked over to Gloria, sitting at the base of her bed before he smiled and handed her the water. "Here you go. How are you doing?" His tone did a complete 180.</p><p>Gloria chugged her entire bottle of water before setting it down on the floor. "Much better! I'm not seeing any more strange colors and shapes so that's a good sign."</p><p>"Must be one heck of a sickness." He chuckled awkwardly, rubbing the back of his head. "Hey, since you're feeling better, do you want to talk about what happened the other day…? I guess I have some apologizing to do."</p><p>She sat up in her bed. "Oh yeah we can.." It was a little awkward to think about how awful their conversation was on the beach. But the bitch did have some apologizing to do.</p><p>"Alright." He looked at Mark. "Can you leave?"</p><p>Mark almost gagged on his water. Wiping his mouth, he scowled at Gyro. "Dude, I'm still sick."</p><p>"Yeah, well, go get some fucking fresh air or something."</p><p>"THERE'S DEAD BODIES OUTSIDE!"</p><p>"THEY'LL BE A DEAD BODY IN HERE IF YOU DON'T LEAVE!"</p><p>Mark glared at Gloria, giving her a sign that she best talk to Gyro about his attitude at the end of their conversation. Grabbing his water bottle, Mark stormed out of the cabin, making a point to slam the door. Though it wasn't very loud considering how weak he still was but the point was still made nonetheless.</p><p>Gyro dragged a hand down his face before putting his feet on Gloria's bed to sit criss cross applesauce in front of her. "Look, I can't even find a starting point to apologize…" While he spoke he took off his glasses to fiddle with so they didn't have to make strange eye contact with the tension hanging in the air. "I was just stressed because I'm worried for you and the baby, obviously. My mind just blanked and I flipped out. I don't know how I feel about going back to Duckburg but it wasn't right of me to just tell you what to do. You're smart enough to make your own choices." He would have added an "I suppose" at the end but now wasn't the time to be in character.</p><p>"Really? Because the other day you said that I was an idiot…" Gloria crossed her arms and stared blankly at the bed. "You said lots of horrible things actually."</p><p>"I know…" He huffed. He took a moment to catch himself from getting angry again. "I wasn't thinking before I spoke. I don't know what else to say other than I'm sorry! What do you want me to say?" He continued on, not wanting her to respond to his question right away. "I always think directly and from a scientific angle. I can't do that here and it just… causes me to get in some weird mindset where I feel out of control. The only control I felt I had was protecting you but I can't even do that. That machine manages to do it while I just stand on the sidelines."</p><p>"You accused me of not caring about our child and then threatened to take them away from me as soon as they were born. I get that you're stressed, Gyro, I am too but… wow. Even if you didn't mean it there must've been some truth to what you were saying, right? Is that how you view me?" Gloria hugged herself, afraid of what he might say next.</p><p>They sat in silence for a minute as Gyro thought of what to say. There was absolutely nothing he could say to that because he was serious when he said it in the heat of the moment. He knew that. "I just- there was no getting through to you. You were, are, so determined to get back to Duckburg and my immediate reaction was to protect the child if I couldn't protect you. I take back everything I said… I don't know what else I can say. I don't have an excuse."</p><p>"You don't have an excuse? So that means that you meant everything that you said to me!"</p><p>He sighed. "Not everything. By the way you were talking… it just sounded like you were putting yourself first before the baby. I know you didn't mean to come off that way but that's how I perceived it."</p><p>Gloria's jaw dropped. "Oh I know you did not just say that, Gyro!"</p><p>"Wait, no," He waved his hands frantically, trying to calm her down. "I know you care for the child just as much as you care for Duckburg! I'm aware of that now; I was wrong!"</p><p>"How was that not something that you were "aware of" sooner?!"</p><p>"I'm sorry! I don't know!" Gyro was starting to get desperate because this conversation wasn't going how he expected it to.</p><p>Gloria started getting tears in her eyes again but she quickly tried to wipe them away before he could see. "Why do you think so lowly of me? God, you really think I am an idiot, don't you?!"</p><p>"Gloria, no." He laid a hand on her knee. "You are one of the best scientists I know. So I know you have a high IQ. I just didn't realize how determined you were to save Duckburg so it scared me. I didn't, and still don't, want you going back and getting hurt. But you're right. You were always right. We need to do something about it, I just don't know how to keep you safe. I'm at loss for once in my life."</p><p>She brushed his hand off of her. She figured that he was lying again because she had been away in Agartha the whole time and slacking off on doing any work when she came home. There is no way that she was one of the best scientists he knew. Gloria sighed and looked away from him. "I think you should leave…"</p><p>"Gloria…"</p><p>"Please just leave me alone!" She sighed before continuing "Gyro, I think we need a break."</p><p>"You're right." He nodded solemnly. "We should take a few hours to regroup before trying to sort this out. I'll head out for a bit." He stood up, starting to head toward the door.</p><p>"No, I mean a break from our relationship."</p><p>Gyro immediately turned back to look at her. "What?" He whispered.</p><p>Gloria started crying again. "Not like a break up but… a break. I just need some time to think about everything, okay?"</p><p>He wanted to comfort her, but he knew she didn't want him to. Instead he nodded. "Okay." The door creaked and shut lightly as he left.<br/>
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>Mark kicked the dirt as he walked past the body bags that were building up. He wasn't disturbed, just grossed out. He would totally lose instagram followers if his fans knew he was hanging out in such a dump. He coughed into his sleeve, still not feeling too hot. Damn, Gyro was such an asshole.</p><p>He looked over at Kyle on his shoulder. "Good thing you can't get sick." He said sarcastically, rolling his eyes. Kyle only blinked in response. Mark continued talking to him anyway because there was no one to rant to unless the dead people counted. Which they didn't. "Can you believe that dude? Duck Jesus. What a prick. I'm going to be the next to end up in a body bag being out the open like this. Fucking ewwwww." The smell didn't make the situation any better. A part of Mark wondered if Steelbeak was going to do anything about the bodies or just leave them there to rot. That would make it harder to find a place to take a good selfie.</p><p>Kyle did a little dance to show Mark that he was listening to him.</p><p>Mark watched his dance and smiled. "You know, I guess you're not SO bad! I mean, you don't talk back and you just go along with whatever I say and do!" Still reluctant, he gave a pat on the top of little Kyle's head. Kyle snuggled up to his neck. "Yeah okay, we aren't that close yet." He pushed him about an inch away, but still kept him on his shoulder. Mark decided to take out his phone and start checking Twitter as he strolled around. Before he could even open the app he bumped into someone.</p><p>"Yooooooo not cool bumping into people like that, little dude!" Mark said, not even bothering to look to see who it was that bumped into him. He knew it must've been someone small because he couldn't see him right away.</p><p>"Oh gee mister. I'm sorry!"</p><p>Mark looked down to see who it was and boy did he metaphorically just shit his pants. "BOYD?! Holy crap little dude how long have you been here?!" He smiled and tousled his hair.</p><p>"14 days, 5 hours, 26 minutes, and 8.9 seconds!" He wrapped his little arms around Mark's legs. "I missed you." He sniffled. Boyd immediately started robot sobbing like Ellie did and Mark had no idea what in Duck Jesus' name to do.</p><p>Mark crouched down and hugged Boyd back. "Awww! I know, I'm just that great." He boasted. "But I missed you, too, bud! But where are your adoptive parents and that weird fat kid?"</p><p>Boyd continued sobbing, grabbing at Mark's dad shorts desperately. "They got- they got executed back in Duckburg and then- then they sent me here all alone!" He started shivering. He may have been a robot but Mark had programmed him to have child-like emotions for the sake of tricking that freak, Doofus.</p><p>Mark stood up and picked him up to hold him. "Sport, I am so so sorry! They weren't that great though…" He patted Boyd's back while he continued to cry on him.</p><p>"They were all I had!"</p><p>Mark was silent for a while. "Well, I know someone who has been wanting to meet you and she's super nice! How does that sound?"<br/>
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>Ellie followed Steelbeak into his office, wringing her hands together. He slammed the door angrily behind him and she tried her best not to jump.</p><p>During the middle of Ellie's walk while she robotically laughed at dead carcusses and analyzed the process of decomposition, Steelbeak had approached her demanding they needed to talk. And he wasn't happy. She had no other choice but to follow much to her disappointment, unless she was willing to get her head torn off again.</p><p>She watched Steelbeak pace around the room. He did that for about a minute before she decided to speak up. "You wished to speak with me?" She kept her voice calm despite the rigid feeling environment.</p><p>Steelbeak slammed his fist onto his desk, leaving a small dent. "Yeah! You STOLE the medicine hidden in my office! I KNOW it was you!"</p><p>She kept a close eye on him just in case things got out of hand. Ellie didn't know how aggressive he was willing to get and that intimidated her. "I do not know what you're speaking of. I am not capable of coming down with an illness so there would have been no reason for me to do so."</p><p>Steelbeak was quiet. It made sense and that honestly checked out. He knew that she was a robot and he never saw her break in. "well uh… maybe YOU don't need them!" Steelbeak pointed at her accusingly. "But your little boyfriend, Mark, needed it, didn't he?!" He stepped closer.</p><p>"I told you," She put out her hands as if that would calm him down. "I broke up with him ."</p><p>"LIAR!" Steelbeak was right in front of her now. He punched the nearby wall as a warning. "Now tell me the truth! You still have feelings for him and you only came by my office to trick me! Tell me that I'm wrong! I fucking dare you!"<br/>


</p><p>Ellie jumped back, closing in on herself out of pure fear. She wondered if she could manage to get to the door in time. If she escaped where would she go? The camp was only so large, and ever if he somehow couldn't find her, he would go to Mark immediately. No doubt. She looked up at him, knowing she had no choice but to tell him the truth. She could only hope an apology would be enough. "You're right. I stole the medicine for Mark and I'm sorry. I shouldn't have tricked you. Just let me leave and I'll promise to never break the rules again."</p><p>That wasn't the answer he wanted to hear. More and more anger had built up in his himbo chest before he sucker punched Ellie in the face, causing her to fall on the floor.</p><p>She scrambled backward, accidentally cornering herself between the wall and Steelbeak. Scanning the area, she quickly realized there were no weapons to use nearby much to her horror. Her handy spork had broken long ago. Yes, she was a strong robot, but taking on a 7 foot man with a metal beak and having only her fists on hand didn't sound like it would go in her favor. Still on the floor, she looked up at him, pleadingly. "I apologized. What else do you want from me?" Her tone started to show her fear.</p><p>Steelbeak grabbed Ellie by her shirt collar and raised her into the air. "I want you to suffer. If disease can't kill you, I will." His voice was calm but dark. He threw her body onto the wall before punching her in the face again. "Get up! I thought you were a fighter! I saw you murder a man a few months ago so I know you can!" He continued to stand over her.</p><p>She stared up at him, too afraid to even move before she worked up the guts to narrow her eyes. Ellie, not having a lot of options, kicked him in the shin. He didn't scream, but he took a knee and she scrambled to grab anything as some sort of weapon. Settling on the small, but heavy, desk lamp, she ripped it from the outlet and brought it down over Steelbeak's head. The metal dented, the light bulb shattering. What horrified Ellie was he didn't even blink. There was no sign of suffering or pain given from him. She tightened her grip on the lamp, swinging it down again when Steelbeak suddenly grabbed a hold of it, twisting it from her grasp and throwing it toward the wall.</p><p>He chuckled, standing up and cracking his neck. "Is that all you got? Pathetic."</p><p>That was all she had. But out of pure frustration she swung her arm back, aiming for his metal beak. She had to have enough strength to damage that. She just had to. Ellie flung her fist forward and was stopped straight away by his hand. Steelbeak, with his other hand, grabbed her arm, swinging her to the ground once again.</p><p>She was directly below him and he glared down at her, arm still gripped tightly by his hand. Ellie couldn't feel pain but the amount of fear she felt was equivalent. Lately she had been picking up organic mannerisms and her chest started heaving up and down quickly without her even thinking as she panicked.</p><p>"You're nothing! There's a reason why Godgold doesn't want you around anymore! You're weak!" As he said his last insult he snapped Ellie's arm out of her socket with one blow. There was a loud crack and it was quick with very little effort from Steelbeak. He threw the arm aside as sparks flew from the now exposed wires. "See how easy it was for me to just snatch your arm off?! It's because your construction is shit and Godgold doesn't care about you enough to have you working better. You're meant to be left in the rain to rust!"</p><p>Ellie shut her eyes tightly and although she tried her best to keep herself from sobbing, she failed miserably. "Steelbeak, please just stop!" She cried out. "I learned my lesson, alright?! Just don't kill me!"</p><p>"Godgold doesn't want you around and neither do I! You've always been a thorn in my side." He picked Ellie up by her neck and slammed her head onto the desk repeatedly, making each blow to the head more painful than the last, even for a robot. Ellie had no idea what pain had felt like and she was always curious, but this was the worst way to experience it. It should've been impossible. How could she feel something now? If he continued on at this rate, Ellie was sure to die.</p><p>She could feel the side of her face beginning to crack as her internal wiring began to give out. Her vision on her right had gone out along with her scanners. "Stop! Stop it!"</p><p>And he did, but Ellie's head remained bolted between his hand and the cocobolo desk. He smirked before leaning in close to her, she could feel his heavy breath on her face. It seemed to become hotter with each exhale. Warm and damp. "It's a shame. I really liked that pretty face of yours. Very alluring." He chuckled, running the back of his other hand down her cheek to feel the cracks, dents, and chips across her once pristine complexion. "Don't worry. You won't be alive long enough to mourn over your loss." He paused. "But you were never alive to begin with. I'm sure you've been told that before, huh? The look on your face is priceless. That fear is to die for."</p><p>Swinging her head up by the hair, he slammed her head on the desk again and the vision she had remaining became very blurry. It continued on for what felt like forever. Her circuits began to give way and the pain she surprisingly felt worsened.</p><p>She started to scream out hoping anyone would hear her pleads. "I said stop! Stop this! Stop!"</p><p>The door to the room flung open. "WHAT'S UP BITCHESSSSSS!" Glomgold scuttled into the room, throwing off his killer sunglasses. He stopped when he saw Ellie's head on the desk with Steelbeak holding her down. "WOT?!" He cockroach crawled over to Steelbeak. "WOT ARE YOO DOING?!"</p><p>Steelbeak immediately backed up from Ellie, putting his hands up. "M-Mister Godgold?! What are you doing here?!"</p><p>"I'LL BE ASKING THE QUESTIONS, STEELFUCK! WOT ARE YOO DOIN' TO MEH ROBO-BABEH?!"</p><p>Ellie pushed herself off the desk but with her vision blurry, to the point she was legally blind, she stumbled over, losing her balance. "He was trying to kill me, Uncle Glomgold." She knew he wasn't her Uncle anymore (and also a psychopathic dictator) but she hoped with all her might he had enough sympathy in his Scottish cockroach little heart to let her go.</p><p>"Mister GodGold I was only-"</p><p>"I DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT! GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE AND GO WRANGLE UP ME SHARKS! I NEED THEM BACK AT DUCKBURG FOR ANOTHER CHURCH CEREMONY!"</p><p>"Y-yes sir!" Steelbeak did a salute before running out of the room, leaving Ellie laying on the ground.</p><p>Glomgold made a Scottish grunt noise before helping Ellie up with her remaining arm. "Wot happened to your arm?" He poked the open socket.</p><p>She sniffled, still very upset for obvious reasons. "Mr. Steelbeak ripped- ripped it off and threw it somewhere. But I can't see." Not caring that an evil dictator, that was the one who sent her to the deadly summer camp in the first place, was standing next to her, she started sobbing again.</p><p>"Oi! Quit your crying! It's annoying!" He walked around the office before finding and handing Ellie's arm back to her. "Here!"</p><p>"Thank you…" She looked at a blurry figure who she assumed was Glomgold. "Why did you save me?"</p><p>"I saved you?" He blinked stupidly.</p><p>"Yes. He was about to kill me but you told him to stop." She now started to think his sympathy was an accident.</p><p>"I needed that idiot to wrangle up meh sharks for meh! But uhhh… you're welcome I guess?" Glomgold scratched his beard.</p><p>The two stood in silence together, both awkwardly thinking about their time in Agartha.</p><p>"Uncle Glomgold, what you're- what you're doing is very wrong. You can't just kill people off left and right like this." Even though Ellie had been laughing at corpses about 30 minutes ago, she now viewed it a bit differently after having her head basically bashed in.</p><p>"The people who respect me, Flintheart Glomgo- oh I mean GodGold, survive! Those who oppose me will perish! MUAHAHAHAHA!"</p><p>Ellie didn't know what to say to that. "I should, um, probably get going now."</p><p>"Alright! Smell ya later, Robo-BABEH!" Glomgold went behind Steelbeak's desk and started rummaging through all of his stuff.</p><p>Clutching her detached arm, Ellie walked out of the room, hitting the wall first before finding the door.</p><p>Gyro owed her big time.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>We wrote this chapter BEFORE Astro-Boyd and there was simply too much to go back and correct in the story, however we were able to work around it. That episode is canon in this universe and things will be explained over time, just bear with us for a bit and you will get the Gyro/Boyd moments you deserve. Unless you're a Mark Beaks/Boyd fan... then you get that too I guess.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0014"><h2>14. You Win Some, You Lose Some</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Ellie sat down on a bench, at least she thought it was a bench. Maybe it was a stack of dead carcasses; who knows at this point.</p>
<p>After leaving Steelbeak's office, whatever vision she had left on her left eye had gone out completely. Naturally she started wandering around until she bumped into someone to ask if they could lead her to cabin 8. Each time she did so she was met with a horrified scream about how the camp leader was "deforming" people now. That didn't make her feel much better so she just gave up and sat down and thought about what happened. Homegirl had some serious PTSD now.</p>
<p>The best course of action at the moment was to hope someone from her cabin would find her before Steelbeak did. It most likely would be Gyro since he was the only one who wasn't sick so that sucked. Dude was lucky she didn't rat him out.</p>
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<p>"Duck Jesus, where the fuck- er I mean frick, is she?!" Mark grumbled while leading Boyd around the camp, holding hands. It was a bit awkward considering he left him for dead at some freak's birthday party. Mark wondered how Boyd really viewed him. Did he hold anything against him for that? Did he hate him? To be honest, Mark had completely forgotten about the little guy until Ellie had a breakdown at the restaurant a few months back. So that goes to show how much he actually cared.</p>
<p>Kyle was still chilling on Mark's shoulder.</p>
<p>"What does she look like? I can help look for her, too!" Boyd said with his chipper little attitude.</p>
<p>Okay. Now wasn't the time to ask Boyd if there was any beef. That would be a later conversation. "Uhh, she's wearing the same outfit as me. What else? Ummm. Oh yeah she's a duck! I think her hair is in a bun? I don't really pay attention that much so…"</p>
<p>"Oh so you mean her over there?" Boyd pointed to a nearby figure who was just chilling with her back facing them. It was a bench, not dead carcasses just to clarify.</p>
<p>"Wait. What?" Mark looked where he was pointing. "Yeah! That's totes her! Thanks, sport."</p>
<p>Boyd smiled and nodded at Mark while they walked a bit faster to meet up with Ellie.</p>
<p>"Hey Ellie! I would like you to meet- oh god what happened?!" Mark let go of Boyd's wittle hand and croutched down to look at what the fuck happened. There were cracks, chips, and dents all over as well as a torn off limb so that's cool. Ellie was not able to make eye contact with Mark so that was another indicator for him that her sensors were down as well.</p>
<p>"Mark?!" Ellie was not expecting him to show up with the condition he was in. She felt around until she laid a hand on his shoulder to find where he was and countered his question with another. "What are you doing out here? You should be in bed resting."</p>
<p>"Gyro kicked me out like the asshole he is!" He looked down at Boyd for a moment, feeling bad for swearing in front of him again. Boyd didn't really seem to care though. "But whatever, what happened to your arm?!"</p>
<p>Ellie wasn't quite sure how to answer that. She wasn't sure whether Mark remembered her and Gyro's plan to steal the medicine considering how out of it he was that night. She didn't really want to talk about it either so she summed it up as best as she could to get off the subject. Ellie was still clearly very upset but didn't want to start sobbing again. "Mr. Steelbeak found out I stole medicine from his office and… he didn't take that very well." Why she wasn't bringing Gyro into this was a mystery to her as well. Perhaps it was because she didn't want to upset Gloria by screwing him over. She didn't think about it too much.</p>
<p>"Could I look at your arm for a second?" Boyd pointed to Ellie's dismembered arm that was laying on her lap.</p>
<p>Ellie jumped, looking around on instinct even though she couldn't see. "Who is that? Is that Gyro? Tell him to get the FUCK away from me!" She really didn't want to deal with him right now when she almost got killed protecting him. And it clearly showed with her sudden burst of anger.</p>
<p>"Ahhhh!" Mark covered the sides of Boyd's head to block out Ellie saying "fuck". "Language! And no it's not him it's umm… it's..."</p>
<p>"I am Boyd, a definitely real boy! Pleased to meet you!" Boyd extended his hand out to shake but put it back down when he realized that she couldn't see.</p>
<p>"Oh…" Ellie was a bit embarrassed now that she realized it was a child speaking. "I apologize. Nice to meet you, Boyd. I'm Ellie." Mark had never mentioned his name before so she didn't really pick up on the fact he was his kid. All she could think of was how weird it was Mark was walking around with a child. She thought he despised kids.</p>
<p>"Hi Ellie! I'm a robot too so I may be able to help you get your arm back into place if you'll let me!"</p>
<p>Now that caught her off guard but she decided not to question why there was another robot here. "That'd be very kind of you." Ellie smiled.</p>
<p>Boyd smiled back, being very excited to be able to help someone. "It's no problem at all! My family doesn't- didn't know anything about robots so I had to learn how to fix myself up."</p>
<p>That made Mark feel real bad.</p>
<p>As Boyd took hold of Ellie's arm to help reattach it with whatever robot skills he had that she didn't, she turned her attention to Mark as best as she could without being able to look at him. "He almost killed me…" She murmured.</p>
<p>"Who tried to kill you?!"</p>
<p>Ellie didn't take offense that he hadn't picked up on her earlier explanation. He was probably just too freaked out about her current condition. "Mr. Steelbeak found out I stole medicine for you and Gloria and he didn't take too kindly to that." She repeated.</p>
<p>Mark softened his gaze, laying a hand on her knee. "Are you okay?" That was a stupid question. He was implying her "emotional" state because obviously her physical self wasn't looking too good. Hopefully she knew what he meant.</p>
<p>"Yes. I'm fine."</p>
<p>Mark could tell that was a fib but left it alone.</p>
<p>After a couple of tries, Boyd had Ellie's arm attached properly again. "Okay! Could you try to move your arm to see if it works, please?"</p>
<p>She nodded and did so, stretching it out. It was stiff but it worked just fine. "That's much appreciated." She thanked warmly. "This goes without saying," She started. "But we need to find a way out of here as soon as possible. He's very determined to kill me and he isn't very happy about you either, Mark."</p>
<p>"Woah hey why is he mad at me?! What did I do?!"</p>
<p>"While Gyro was grabbing the medicine, I had to distract Mr. Steelbeak." Gyro was exposed now and she hoped he got a slap at the very least. "He wasn't willing to listen to me until I said that you and I broke up. I had to kiss him before he saw Gyro so when he found out we were still dating it pushed him over the edge…" Ellie admitted, shamefully, but Mark deserved to know the whole story. She knew he wouldn't get mad.</p>
<p>"Well, I'm glad you got out of there in one piece." It took that poor man a minute to think about what he just said "Oh wait em- you know what I mean! But how did you escape?"</p>
<p>"Glomgold saved me."</p>
<p>"What?! Glomgold's here?!"</p>
<p>She sighed. "Yes. He wanted Mr. Steelbeak to give him back his sharks for a church service. I just don't understand why he was so nice to me. He stopped it accidentally, but even so he helped me off the ground and gave me my arm back."</p>
<p>"I will never understand that guy…"</p>
<p>Boyd poked Ellie's shoulder "Excuse me? I'm sorry to interrupt but your sensors are still down, correct?"</p>
<p>"That's correct. Can you… do something about that?"</p>
<p>"I can try!" Boyd stood on Ellie's lap and started to rummage with any exposed wires that were coming out of Ellie's head. After a few tweeks Ellie's eyesight returned.</p>
<p>She blinked a few times before smiling. "Aw, thank you-" She stopped when she laid her eyes on Boyd who was still standing on her lap with a big grin. She would've jumped back if he wasn't on her. "You look strangely like Mark."</p>
<p>Mark sighed and picked Boyd up off of Ellie so he was holding him again. "Yeah I was trying to say that earlier. He's um… yeah this is Boyd, my robot son. I just found out he was here at the camp."</p>
<p>"My adopted parents died." Boyd said bluntly.</p>
<p>The reaction Mark was expecting was not the one he got. She jumped out, shoving Mark out the way so she had Boyd in her arms instead. Mark tripped over a branch and crashed into the ground. "OW!"</p>
<p>"Oh my gosh you are just so CUTE!" She squeezed him, ignoring Mark's pain. "You poor thing!"</p>
<p>
  
</p>
<p>Boyd hugged Ellie back and smiled "Thank you!"</p>
<p>"I'm happy they are dead because I am a better parent." She stated.</p>
<p>Mark gasped while he pushed himself off the ground. "ELLIE! YOU CAN'T SAY THAT!"</p>
<p>They both ignored Mark. "Are you going to adopt me?!"</p>
<p>"Absolutely!" She hugged him. "We're going to be one big happy family that will attempt a prison break together as our first bonding experience."</p>
<p>While they embraced each other, Kyle jumped off of Mark and scuttled over to Ellie's foot, nudging her.</p>
<p>She looked down. "Hello, Kyle. I have a real child now. Goodbye." She squashed him with one quick motion of her foot. There was a tiny chinese cockroach cry of pain.</p>
<p>Mark starred in horror. What hurt the most was that he was actually starting to like Kyle and was even viewing him as a son! Mark gasped "Ellie, why did you do that to Kyle?!"</p>
<p>"I had no use for him now that we have Boyd. You did not like him that much so it worked out, didn't it?" She smiled, not picking up on Mark's clear mournful expression, and put Boyd down to take his hand. "Come along now, Boyd. We have to leave camp before we get murdered."</p>
<p>Ellie's tone wasn't monotone. It was worried and that emotion passed onto Mark as well.</p>
<p>___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________</p>
<p>Gloria sat on her bed, still curled tightly in a ball. A part of her wished Ellie or Mark would come back sooner just so she had someone to cry on, but it had been a few hours and there was no sign of them. At least Gyro had taken her request seriously and took a hike. She couldn't cry anymore so all she could do was dry sob into her knees. She had never felt this kind of pain before and she knew that something was very wrong. Not just mental pain, but physical. Probably from how much crying she had been doing. Like seriously, is this bitch staying hydrated?</p>
<p>What if her and Gyro never made up? What if she had to raise the child alone? That thought horrified her. She had no job, just a free internship with the man she was in a huge fight with. She hadn't even gotten her degree yet, she was still just a college student!</p>
<p>How old was Gyro anyway? We're not going to think about that in this fanfiction. I'm sure he's somewhere in his twenties. Just go with it please.</p>
<p>All of that was terrible enough in a normal society, but to top everything off she was in a deadly summer camp in a new North Korea run by an idiot Scottish duck.</p>
<p>"This fucking SUCKS!" She punched the wall as she screamed in pain. Actual pain. That sudden movement caused a surge of physical pain to surge through her body. She gagged and hurled over. "...w-what?" Jeez. Was she getting sick again? She tried getting into another position to cry in when she noticed a large pool of blood on her bed.</p>
<p>She screamed, squirming back to the head of her bed. It was everywhere and the sheets were soaked. "W-what…?" Gasping out, she started to have trouble breathing. Oh god. She was dying wasn't she? Whatever plague had hit her was going to kill both her and her baby off.</p>
<p>Standing up onto the splintered floor, Gloria almost tumbled over trying to balance herself. More blood spilled onto the floor. How did a body even contain so much? She wasn't about to find out. She quickly made her way to the bathroom stalls, leaving a shit ton of blood behind her. It was like the red wedding episode in this cabin y'all.</p>
<p>Gloria gagged into her hand, beginning to sob louder.</p>
<p>______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________</p>
<p>Ellie held Boyd's hand as her and Mark walked down the dirt trail with dead body bags littering the sides by the cabins. Though being a full family now, the three were stressed to the core while they had kept a low profile as they attempted to plan an escape route. Doing so for the past few hours gave them no ideas and the situation started to look grim. Finally they decided to return to the cabin to discuss other plans with both Gloria and Gyro.</p>
<p>Ellie's mood had shifted dramatically despite having a child she so desperately wanted. Mark had noticed her mood beginning to change slowly over the past few hours and he knew why. Boyd had managed to distract her from the trauma she experienced from Steelbeak, but only for so long. Not only was she worried for herself and Mark, but now she was even more worried for Boyd. She did not put it past Steelbeak to harm a child.</p>
<p>Steelbeak was busy for the day helping Glomgold collect his sharks, but they only had so much time to work with.</p>
<p>"Did you have a good day, sport?" Mark asked, ruffling his hair. Both Mark and Ellie had tried their best to distract him from what they were really doing as best as they could by keeping the conversation chipper.</p>
<p>"Oh I did! Thanks mom and dad!" He smiled at the two of them.</p>
<p>Ellie's circuits nearly burst, but not from physical trauma this time. "Are you okay calling us that?"</p>
<p>"Oh I mean… if it's okay with you!"</p>
<p>She smiled warmly. "Of course it is."</p>
<p>Mark on the other hand coughed into his fist. "Erm…" It was horrible, but suddenly having an actual kid, one that he had ditched, was a bit hard on him. He was an asshole, yes, but the guilt was eating away at his black heart. Mark assumed Ellie still didn't know the entire story. Only bits in pieces. What if she was judging him too?</p>
<p>"RIGHT, Mark?"</p>
<p>Boyd turned his head to look up at Mark and he could've sworn Boyd was giving him the puppy dog eyes. Mark sighed "Yeah it's cool." He managed a fake smile to convince the two of them. Before either of them could respond, they arrived at their destination. "Looky here, we're at the cabin! Yayyyyy!"</p>
<p>Ellie gave him a worried look, knowing something was wrong but she knew it was best to leave him alone for now. Or not. Curiosity killed the cat. "I think you'll really like Gloria. But feel free to punch Gyro as much as you like." She held the door open for the two of them, though Mark had fallen a bit behind once they had arrived. "Are you okay?" She whispered.</p>
<p>"Yeah. Just worried about us getting murdered by Steelbeak." He half lied. It was mostly true, Mark just didn't feel like saying "Oh. I just think the two of you hate me now because I left Boyd for dead #LMAO."</p>
<p>"We can talk about it later if you want." She offered before giving him a kiss on the cheek. That made Mark feel a bit better.</p>
<p>"#thanks."</p>
<p>"Wow! There's red paint on the floor…?" Boyd cheered, but his tone quickly changed to a question of deep concern.</p>
<p>Both Mark and Ellie gasped. Ellie grabbed Boyd while Mark sheltered him from the scene.</p>
<p>"Oh god…" Ellie covered her mouth. "Steelbeak got here first." Taking Boyd into her own arms, Ellie hid his face. "We need to leave now!" There was pure panic in her expression that Mark could see passed her beat up features that she mostly hid with her hair.</p>
<p>"Where?! How are we going to get out of here!?"</p>
<p>"I don't know!"</p>
<p>"...hey." Gloria was in the corner of the cabin with her bed stripped. She sat in the dark, hugging her legs again. She's been there alone for hours now. She had been crying so much that she couldn't bring herself to cry anymore over the situation.</p>
<p>The two whipped their heads quickly and spotted Gloria. Though Ellie still sheltered Boyd who was now clinging to her shorts in fear, beginning to shake.</p>
<p>"OH FUCK! HE GOT GYRO!" Mark screamed. And then he stopped because he realized he didn't give a shit about Gyro. "Actually, nevermind. I don't care."</p>
<p>"Gloria. I don't know what you saw but you need to look past it. We have to leave now." Ellie spat out, her voice beginning to sound desperate.</p>
<p>"We're leaving?" Her tone was dead. She didn't even bother to look up at them.</p>
<p>"WHY ARE YOU ACTING SO EMO, GLO! LET'S BOUNCE! GYRO SUCKED ANYWAY!" Mark pointed a thumb toward the door.</p>
<p>Gloria didn't respond. Ellie took note and quickly scanned the area. She froze when she realized the blood wasn't Gyro's.</p>
<p>"Mark…"</p>
<p>"Yo?"</p>
<p>She shoved Boyd into his arms. "Take Boyd and leave. Now. And make sure to stay away from Steelbeak."</p>
<p>Mark, though confused, obliged and took Boyd with him by the hand, leaving the cabin to stay in the forest with Boyd for a few hours.</p>
<p>Immediately, Ellie ran over to Gloria and sat in front of her on the bed. Laying a hand on her knee, Ellie studied her, looking for any wounds that she assumed were caused by Steelbeak. There were no stab or bullet wounds she could spot. In fact, she couldn't find the source of the bleeding at all. "Gloria, what happened?" She whispered.</p>
<p>"I- I lost my child, Ellie." She couldn't manage any more tears at the moment. All she wanted to do was rest but she couldn't get the mental images of her going through her miscarrage out of her head.</p>
<p>Ellie's mind went blank. "Gloria, I- I don't know what to say…" Ellie now noticed Gloria was covered in more blood than she suspected at first. "I'm so sorry. I failed my command…" She took Gloria into a hug, not knowing what else to do and not caring about the blood. Ellie was pretty fucked up looking herself at the moment anyway.</p>
<p>Gloria made a weak attempt of a hug. "Where's Gyro? I haven't seen him all day…"</p>
<p>Not letting go of Gloria, Ellie frowned though she couldn't see her. "I'm sorry. I haven't seen him either…" The thought of Steelbeak finding and killing Gyro dawned on her almost immediately and she hugged Gloria tighter. She wasn't going to say anything.</p>
<p>Gloria closed her eyes and sighed "Alright…" She really wasn't in the mood for talking for obvious reasons.</p>
<p>Ellie let go of Gloria to feel her forehead. "Your fever has gotten worse." She whispered while looking down at Gloria's clothes and bed. "Why don't you take my bed while I get you medicine and a change of clothes." It wasn't a question. Ellie stood up, ready to help Gloria walk over to the other side of the room.</p>
<p>Hopefully Mark wouldn't mind moving back up to the top bunk.</p>
<p>Speaking of Mark's bed, Ellie took the top blanket off, handing it to Gloria. "I know this is a bit strange, but you cover yourself up with this while I get you a change of clothes."</p>
<p>Gloria was standing in front of her new bed and nodded to Ellie who was now leaving the cabin "Thank you, Ellie."</p>
<p>______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________</p>
<p>"BITCH! GET THOSE SHARKS, I SAY!" Glomgold angrily marched back and forth on the beach as Steelbeak struggled to squish the sharks back into their wooden boxes for shipping.</p>
<p>"I'M TRYING, MR. GODGOLD SIR!" He screamed back. The sharks, despite them living in a freshwater lake, enjoyed their new home and didn't want to go back to Glomgold.</p>
<p>"WELL TRY HARDER! THE MORE TIME YOU WASTE ON SHARKS IS MORE TIME YOU WASTE NOT BEING ABLE TO KILL PEOPLE!" There was a plague going around the camp but that wasn't good enough for Glomgold. This man wanted more death.</p>
<p>Steelbeak was already angry trying to wrangle all the sharks, but being yelled at by his boss for not working hard enough at the same time didn't make him any more calm for obvious reasons. "WELL I WOULD'VE KILLED THE ROBOT EARLIER," He grunted, pushing one of the sharks into the overly small box. "IF YOU HADN'T STOPPED ME!"</p>
<p>"WOT?!" He stomped harder. This little dude was pretty pissed.</p>
<p>"YOU SPECIFICALLY REQUESTED HER TO BE SENT TO THIS CAMP AND THEN YOU DIDN'T WANT ME TO KILL HER?! MAKE UP YOUR MIND!"</p>
<p>"HOW DARE YOOH SPEAK TO MEH THAT WAY! I'LL CUT OFF YER DAMN FUCKING LEGS IF YOU KEEP AT IT!" All of this yelling made Glomgold pretty sweaty.</p>
<p>Steelbeak scowled at him but he knew it was time to stop, so he turned back to put all his attention on the sharks. He beat them into their confined spaces pretending each punch was one to Ellie's face. He figured that if Glomgold won't let him kill her then he would at least make her suffer. He decided that his next target would be the next best thing: Mark Beaks.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0015"><h2>15. Body Bags</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Ellie walked down the forest trail with Gloria's soon to be new clothes in hand. There was no way she was going to ask Steelbeak or Glomgold for a pair, the reasoning was obvious, so the only solution she could think of was to steal a pair from a dead body in a bag close to the edge of camp where most were dumped. Hopefully Gloria wouldn't ask about it. If she did Ellie would come up with some sort of white lie.</p>
<p>The shorts were the same but the shirt was from a previous member of Cabin 21. Their mascot was an alligator, while the rest of the shirt was a horrid green. It was the first outfit she came across and she didn't feel like searching through tons of bags to find something the most fashionable.</p>
<p>"Ellie?"</p>
<p>Turning her head to the right, she saw Gyro (ew) leaning on a pinetree off the side of the path. "What do you want?" She snapped. Not only was she pissed that she got beat up by Steelbeak instead of him, but the situation was worse when she found out he was absent from the cabin for hours and wasn't there to emotionally support Gloria. Something he was supposed to do when Ellie wasn't around to follow her command given on the train. What a little bitch.</p>
<p>He scoffed at her. Gyro wasn't in the mood to talk to her either but after watching her dig through a body bag he figured he might as well say something. He eyed her up and down with a grimace. "What happened to your face?"</p>
<p>"Steelbeak happened! I almost died instead of ratting you out!" Ellie pointed an accusing finger at him.</p>
<p>"What the hell are you even talking about?!" Gyro stood up to face her, crossing his arms.</p>
<p>"What do you mean what am I talking about?! Steelbeak found out about the medicine and decided taking me out was the best course of action! And what did I do? I decided for some ungodly reason to not blame it on you! Thank you very much!"</p>
<p>"Getting the medicine from Steelbeak's office was a team effort! It's not my fault you didn't rat me out! What am I supposed to say here, "Sorry I didn't get beaten up?"?!"</p>
<p>To be fair, he had a really good point but Ellie wasn't having it at the moment. "You have been sailing through all of this like it is nothing! My life has been put on the line so many times! As soon as I team up with you of all people to attempt my second break in, with my first one ending up with my head being blown off, what happens? I still get the blame and get my limb torn off!" She shouldn't have been wasting time on him with Gloria's condition but she was mighty unhappy with this man walking away scott free. What she had been through hours prior was haunting.</p>
<p>Gyro gave Ellie a confused look "Your… limb was torn off? God I think you're just over exaggerating."</p>
<p>Ellie slapped him, the force slamming him back into the tree with some bark falling off.</p>
<p>"Agh! What the hell?!" Gyro covered his cheek with his hands. This man is never going to get a break I swear.</p>
<p>She waved him off, heading back down the path. "No matter. I have to tend to Gloria unlike some people around here."</p>
<p>Gyro thankfully wasn't able to see her disgusted expression directed at him.</p>
<p>He started to follow her, despite him still being very pissed off. "Wait, why?"</p>
<p>The angry expression she wore diminished as she glanced over at him. "You still do not know, do you?"</p>
<p>"Know what?!"</p>
<p>Ellie did hate him but she also didn't want to be the one to tell him the heart wrenching news. She gave a defeated sigh before laying a hand on his shoulder, trying to be as supportive as she could after just slapping him. "Gloria lost the baby. She had a miscarriage earlier today."</p>
<p>Gyro slapped Ellie's hand away. "STOP MESSING WITH ME! I GET YOU'RE PISSED BUT THAT'S TOO FAR!" Even though he was in denial, his eyes gave away that he was very fearful of it actually being the truth. He paused for a moment. "You're serious?"</p>
<p>Wincing from his slap, Ellie took a step back. "Perhaps you should go on ahead." She spoke gently while holding the clothes tightly to her chest like it was some sort of comfort in the conversation that suddenly got very serious.</p>
<p>"Oh god…" He placed a hand over his mouth as some sort of processing method before he suddenly took off down the path, sprinting toward the cabin.</p>
<p>______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________</p>
<p>Mark and Boyd sat on the old rusty benches by the boxing arena where Ellie had killed a guy a few months ago. Yeah, that one.</p>
<p>The two had been sitting in silence for a while. Boyd had begun kicking his little legs back and forth since he couldn't touch the ground while sitting so "high" up.</p>
<p>The weather was extremely humid, making Mark more than uncomfortable as mosquitoes started swarming around him. "Bleh! Ew, nature!" He started swatting them away as best as he could but more kept coming.</p>
<p>"I can help you!" Boyd stood up on the bench and started clapping his hands together to kill the mosquitoes. He never missed.</p>
<p>Despite the help, Mark winced. The little dude, being a robot and all, had some killer strength that Mark didn't want to have targeted on his beautiful, instagram model face. "Uh, thanks?"</p>
<p>Boyd giggled in response before sitting back down. He turned to look up at his new (or old?) dad. "Why did we have to come all the way out here? I want to go back and see mom and her friend."</p>
<p>"Oh we can see the two of them in a little while, sport! But let's just stay here for a bit longer." Mark didn't answer his question and he honestly didn't know the full extent as to why Ellie kicked him out. Jeez, the man is always getting kicked out of the cabin.</p>
<p>"But why? We aren't doing anything." He frowned and whimpered while bringing his knees up to hug them. Also flicking ants off the bench in the meantime. "And I'm hungry." Mark had forgotten he programmed Boyd to need food like how a normal boy would for the sake of him seeming more believable at the party. It all went back to the party.</p>
<p>He wanted to offer to take Boyd to the cafeteria, but he was still very much worried about running into Steelbeak. Mark didn't want to experience what Ellie had, or have Boyd go through that either if Steelbeak found out he had relations to them. "We can get food later." Mark scratched the back of his head. "Soooo… are you and me cool?"</p>
<p>"Cool?" It's been a while since he's lived with Mark so he had to relearn his vocabulary again.</p>
<p>Mark groaned. "Yeah. Like "#chill"." He said in quotations. "Remember me teaching you that?"</p>
<p>"Oh right! I was confused for a moment because it's actually quite humid today… You taught me that you were cool! I do remember that!" Boyd pointed to him.</p>
<p>"I am totes cool!" Mark took pride in that, pointing to himself as well. He went quiet for a moment before sighing in defeat. He needed to stop avoiding the subject."But, um, seriously. About the whole party thing and me not telling you you were… a robot. Are you mad… about that?"</p>
<p>"Why would I be mad?"</p>
<p>"Uhhhh… because I left you in the pool for dead?" That sounded worse now that he said it out loud.</p>
<p>"You did? Well, I was revived so I guess it couldn't have been that… what's the word again? Oh yeah, wack!"</p>
<p>Mark would have laughed his ass off if this was a normal conversation. But no, he had to be in serious mode. Something his small brain couldn't handle much of. "And I only built you so I could get money…" He trailed off before picking it back up again. "Like, do you seriously not hold that against me?"</p>
<p>Boyd was silent for a moment before he finally decided to speak up. "You're my dad. You may not have been there for me before but you're here now! Plus I have a new mom! I can't be mad!" He hugged Mark.</p>
<p>Mark flinched at the sudden contact of a child against his sweaty, disgusting body. Ew. Boyd was just spreading germs around in nature of all places. Despite that, Mark slowly wrapped his arms around Boyd in return. "Thanks, buddy." He was the first to break the hug, not being the type of person to be affectionate toward children. Man, he would have to work at that. Kyle was just a warm up. Poor Kyle… "Hey. What do you say we head back now? I think they've had enough time to have "girl talk" or whatever."</p>
<p>___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________</p>
<p>"Gloria?! What happened?!" Gyro burst into cabin 8, panting from his last minute sprint. Must've been a mile at least. Gloria sat on Ellie's bed, wearing a sheet like it was a towel. Blood was still on the ground along with her red-soaked clothes. When she didn't respond he slowly made his way over to her, like he was approaching a lion. "Gloria?" He didn't sit on the base of the bed, instead deciding to stand close to her.</p>
<p>Gloria turned her head slowly to face him and didn't respond. She just stared at him hoping he already knew what happened so she didn't have to go through the pain of telling him. Despite her being utterly exhausted, she knew that having to relive it again to tell him would break her heart.</p>
<p>Gyro took a knee to be on her level. "It's true, isn't it?" He whispered.</p>
<p>
  
</p>
<p>She continued to hug herself and nodded.</p>
<p>A knot formed in Gyro's stomach as he stared at her for a few seconds before finally sitting beside her to take her into his arms. They were in a fight, yes, but he had to act as some sort of comfort. He lightly pushed her toward him so she was leaning on his chest and rocked gently, running his hand through her curly hair. "I'm so sorry I wasn't there." His voice was so quiet it could barely be heard.</p>
<p>"It was all my fault. I failed as a mother." That was the first words she'd spoken in awhile.</p>
<p>Gyro hushed her. "Don't say that. You didn't do anything wrong…" He continued to stroke her hair, hoping it soothed her. "All those things I said to you… it probably pushed you over the edge with stress and…" His throat tightened, deciding for him to end the sentence there. If anything, it was his fault.</p>
<p>Gloria put her hand over her mouth as she started to cry again. "I failed you, too… I'm so sorry, Gyro."</p>
<p>Tears started falling from Gyro's eyes as well. He didn't notice until his vision became blurry. Man, he hadn't cried since that one time he got stung by a bee in highschool. "You failed me? No no. You did everything right. I just stood by and messed everything up. I couldn't protect you from anything the whole time we were here and then I just blamed everything on you." His voice was shaky now. "It was me, Gloria. It was all me. I wish I could take back everything and have figured out a way to escape the train before we arrived at this stupid summer camp."</p>
<p>Gloria shook her head "Gyro, no. It's not your fault…" She clutched onto his shirt.</p>
<p>"No, don't console me." His voice remained hushed as he hugged her tighter. "It's going to be okay, I promise. We'll figure a way out of here and no one will get hurt ever again."</p>
<p>"Ellie said I was running a fever again. As much as I want to leave, I don't think I can."</p>
<p>"Hm?" He felt her forehead. "Oh jeez, she's right. Did you take more medicine?"</p>
<p>"Yeah. Ellie left to find me a change of clothes, too."</p>
<p>Gyro now understood why Ellie was going through a body bag and shivered. That wasn't something to bring up. He slowly let go of her, helping her lay down. "You need to sleep. I'll stay by your side the whole time, alright?"</p>
<p>Gloria nodded "Gyro, I'm not mad at you anymore. I'm sorry."</p>
<p>He sighed, still running a hand through her hair. "You have every right to remain mad at me. What I did was not okay. I'll never do anything like that to you ever again, I promise. I should have listened to you so much earlier."</p>
<p>A light knock came from the door.</p>
<p>"Come in." Gyro answered for Gloria, knowing it was Ellie. Mark wouldn't have knocked being the asshole he was.</p>
<p>Ellie peaked her head in before entering completely. She locked the door behind her because she knew Mark well enough too. She hoped him and Boyd were still safe from Steelbeak, wherever they were. Walking over to Gyro, she placed the clothes on the nightstand. Gloria, being so exhausted, had passed out on his lap almost immediately.</p>
<p>"Is she doing alright?" Ellie whispered.</p>
<p>"Not really, but I luckily convinced her to get some rest."</p>
<p>Walking to the other side of the room, Ellie removed Gloria's bloody sheets to help clean up the mess on the floor. While she did so, she looked over at Gyro. "I know she is not in the best condition but we need to leave soon."</p>
<p>"Leave tonight? No way. We can't do that." He remained calm, but there was a bit of frustration in his tone.</p>
<p>"There's no choice. Being here for a few hours after my confrontation with Steelbeak was risky enough, but staying another night? I know we will not be alive by morning."</p>
<p>Gyro's eyes widened. "It was that serious?"</p>
<p>Ellie nodded. "Mark and I tried to come up with an escape route all day. But it's impossible. There are God Bots everywhere." She closed her eyes. "I'm at a loss, yet we need to come up with something soon."</p>
<p>"Okay let's think." Gyro put a hand to his chin. "We obviously can't pull a normal jailbreak and go through the fence."</p>
<p>"Correct."</p>
<p>"And God Bots guard every possible exit. Not to mention there is a ton of other security precautions."</p>
<p>"Also correct."</p>
<p>Gyro didn't continue and the cabin went silent for a while. Ellie finished cleaning up the blood and although it wasn't the most sanitary idea, she settled on just sliding the mess under Gloria's old bunk since it wasn't going to be in use any longer.</p>
<p>He suddenly spoke up again. "What about something that goes in and out of the camp? Like food trucks?"</p>
<p>"I analyzed that as a possibility earlier today, but I have taken notice that the trucks only come every two weeks and the visits have become less frequent. My guess is starvation is another way to kill us off. The last delivery was only a few days ago if I remember correctly."</p>
<p>Gyro pinched in between his eyes. "Ah fuck. What's something else that comes in and out of the camp?"</p>
<p>They went silent for a few minutes before a terrible idea popped into Ellie's mind. "You're not going to like this."</p>
<p>"Like what?"</p>
<p>Ellie sighed before lowering her voice. "The bodies have been building up and God Bots have been taking them out recently. We should somehow get into those bags."</p>
<p>"What?" Gyro almost barfed thinking about it. "You can't be serious."</p>
<p>"Do you have a better idea?"</p>
<p>"WHY'S THE DOOR LOCKED? GIRL TALK OVER OR WHAT?" Mark banged on the door obnoxiously, waking Gloria up in the process.</p>
<p>When he realized that opening the door wasn't a working plan for him, he tried knocking 100 beats per minute until someone opened the door for him.</p>
<p>Ellie finally did. "Mark, quiet down, you're going to wake Gloria." It was too late unbeknownst to her.</p>
<p>"Pft. Yeah yeah, whatever." He waved her off, entering the cabin with Boyd behind him. Ellie shut the door quickly, still paranoid about Steelbeak.</p>
<p>Boyd looked around the cabin, laying his eyes on Gyro immediately. Mark had mentioned Gyro, but he hadn't put two and two together. "Dr. Gearloose?!"</p>
<p>Mark and Ellie looked at Boyd in shock.</p>
<p>Gyro stopped comfortion Gloria for a moment and shot his head up. "Hello child I've never met before… how do you- uh- how do you know my name?"</p>
<p>"Do you not remember? There was that one time in-"</p>
<p>"I don't know what you're talking about! You all need to leave now! There is a situation going on here!"</p>
<p>Boyd, still confused and now somewhat offended, looked over at Gloria who Gyro was gesturing to. "Oh hi! I'm Boyd and these are my new parents!" He gestured to both Mark and Ellie.</p>
<p>Ellie's blank expression turned to one of shock. She shook her head frantically as she led Boyd away from the bed. "Now isn't a good time, Boyd."</p>
<p>Mark groaned. "God leave the kid alone! Haven't you guys had your girl talk long enough? Honestly…"</p>
<p>Knowing Mark was too much of an idiot to understand, Ellie didn't become angry with him. She walked over to him with Boyd before squeezing his hand and leaning into whisper. "She lost the baby…" She said calmly with a tint of sadness and quiet enough for Boyd not to hear.</p>
<p>"Ohhhh…" He looked at Gloria before turning his attention back to Ellie with a shrug. "Guess she won't be fat anymore." Mark was lucky that neither Gyro nor Gloria heard him say that.</p>
<p>"Mark. Honestly." Ellie scolded.</p>
<p>Gyro stood up. "Okay! That's it! All of you leave, Gloria still needs rest!"</p>
<p>"No! Nature is #disgusting! And stop kicking me out of the cabin! God, it's my room too, ya know?!"</p>
<p>Ellie stepped forward. "I know you're angry, Gyro. But we need to formulate our plan and execute it soon. We don't have time to give you two some space anymore. For the sake of all our safety."</p>
<p>"What plan?" Gloria finally spoke up. She was asleep throughout the whole discussion of the plan so she was just as lost as Mark, which is saying a lot.</p>
<p>"Yeah! What plan?!" Mark added just because he could. He liked to hear himself talk sometimes.</p>
<p>Gyro stood up, adjusting his glasses. "Ellie and I have come to the conclusion that we must escape tonight. The best course of action is to," He sighed. "Sneak out through the body bags…"</p>
<p>"Oh hell no!" Mark backed up, shaking his head.</p>
<p>Ironically, Ellie was the one to cover Boyd's ears despite her swearing in front of him in the past. "Mark, it's the only way! Steelbeak is going to kill us all! I know he will!"</p>
<p>"Marky doesn't deal with gross things!"</p>
<p>Gyro crossed his arms "Then stay here and die. Fine by me!"</p>
<p>"Do we know where they take the bodies?" Gloria asked. Her voice was still very strained. She also hated this plan. She was in no mood to protest nor did she have any better solution at hand.</p>
<p>Gyro was the one to answer. "They have large piles of body bags outside the cabins. We just need to get in some and wait. They move quickly due to the growing death rate so we will only have to wait 24 hours at most."</p>
<p>"24 HOURS?! Like HELL we're waiting in body bags for 24 hours!"</p>
<p>"That's the worst case scenario!" Gyro shot back at Mark.</p>
<p>"I mean after they have us in the bags, where do they take us?"</p>
<p>Gyro and Ellie looked at eachother. "We don't exactly know…" Ellie was ashamed to admit.</p>
<p>"Wow good plan, asshole!" Mark snapped at Gyro. Even though half of this plan was Ellie's, he chose to ignore that and only focus his frustration at him.</p>
<p>"Mark please. You need to be in on this. You saw what he did to me." Ellie pleaded. Boyd had begun hugging her, he didn't understand why everyone was yelling and he had started to get scared too.</p>
<p>"Mom…" He whimpered. Ellie's eyes softened, pulling him in closer.</p>
<p>Mark started waving his hands in the air to express himself. "Okay but what if they take the body bags to like, kill us or something?!"</p>
<p>Everyone stared at Mark, including the cockroaches. Could he really be that stupid?</p>
<p>Gyro was the first to speak up again, rubbing his forehead in frustration. "Mark… why would they kill people in body bags… who have already died?"</p>
<p>"...oh." Mark put his hands in his pockets. "Okay yeah this seems like a pretty a'ight plan now! But I will not be happy about the lighting quality."</p>
<p>"It seems Glomgold has been keeping Steelbeak busy for the day, but we don't know how much longer that will last, if he is still even busy." Ellie said. "We should execute the plan now."</p>
<p>Gyro handed Gloria her clothes. "You need help walking to the bathroom?" He whispered, understanding she still was mentally and physically struggling.</p>
<p>"I think I'm alright but come with me anyways." She slowly got up with Gyro locking arms with her to help her to the bathroom. Her legs still felt very weak. She had no idea how she was going to do anything with the body bag plan!</p>
<p>"Hey I don't get why you were sleeping in my bed?! God and you were naked too?! Gross! Girl cooties!" Mark huffed and started tweeting about his frustration with everything.</p>
<p>Ellie knelt down to Boyd's level, he was still clinging to her, shaking. "Are you alright?"</p>
<p>Boyd nodded. "Yes, I'm okay. My brother was Doofus so nothing really scares me anymore." His voice was small and cowering.</p>
<p>Ellie didn't believe his courageous claim but let it be, taking him into her arms.</p>
<p>Mark started taking some selfies instead of comforting Boyd too because he just sucked as a dad.</p>
<p>______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________</p>
<p>A few hours later Gyro, Mark, and Ellie continued arguing about the plan as Gloria tried her best to take a nap.</p>
<p>Boyd was standing in the corner, observing Gyro. 'Why isn't he talking to me?' He wondered. That made the situation all the more upsetting to him.</p>
<p>Gyro made eye contact with Boyd when Ellie and Mark started to argue between one another because Mark was being a "bad father" when Boyd was clearly upset. When Mark started to defend himself, Gyro took the oppurtunity to sneak over to Boyd.</p>
<p>"Hey, kid."</p>
<p>"Dr. Gearloose… why are you pretending that you don't recognize me? Do you not remember me?" Boyd started to fiddle with his bowtie anxiously.</p>
<p>He sighed, squatting down to his level to lay a hand on his shoulder. "Of course I remember you! But there's just… a lot of stuff going on right now and I don't think it's the best idea for everyone to know that I was the one who built you. It would upset your "parents", especially when Beaks," He pointed to Mark with his thumb. "Is insisting he's the one who built you. It's not a good time to start more drama between everyone."</p>
<p>"Does dad not know you're the one who built me? Why is he lying to everyone? I noticed he was lying earlier but I was too afraid to say anything."</p>
<p>"Well, clearly he has it in his mind that he did and we shouldn't question it. That man is an enigma. But you're right, he doesn't know and we need to keep it that way."</p>
<p>Boyd frowned. "I still don't understand."</p>
<p>"We can talk about it later when things calm down. For now just go along with what your dad says and pretend you don't know me? Can you do that?"</p>
<p>"How long do I have to pretend?"</p>
<p>"As long as you can. Do you think you're a good actor?"</p>
<p>Boyd nodded his head. "Yeah I think so! I got a Junior Woodchuck badge in acting."</p>
<p>"Great!" Gyro patted his arm. "Beaks hates me so… just go along with that too. We'll break it to everyone… eventually. A long ways from now but we'll do it at some point. Maybe when the dictatorship is over."</p>
<p>"Okay." Boyd nodded.</p>
<p>Gyro smiled one last time before heading back over to Ellie and Mark, luckily they hadn't noticed he left.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0016"><h2>16. Chapter 16</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"I'M BACK OFF TO DUCKBURG- ER, GLOMBURG NOW, STEELFUCK! PEACEEEE!" Glomgold gave an a-okay sign thinking it was a peace sign before sticking his head back into the helicopter, the boxes of sharks hanging from the bottom. His beautiful kilt flowing in the wind.</p><p>Steelbeak gave a salute as his worst enemy, aka his employer, took off. As soon as the helicopter was out of sight, his respectful smile turned into a deep scowl. "Thanks for wasting my time, asshole." He spoke in an undertone. The time he spent wrangling all the sharks that day was time he could've spent bashing Mark's pretty little face in, and maybe Ellie's other cabin friends if he had some extra time to spare.</p><p>He adjusted his camp uniform and started to march toward cabin 8. It's murder time, boys.</p><p>________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>Gyro paced around the cabin while cleaning his glasses, something the nerd did when he was thinking deeply. "Alright. Just so we're all clear on the plan, at sundown we head out and get in the body bags so the night can be used to our advantage. You hear that Mark? Sundown. NOT sunrise."</p><p>"Sunrise. Got it." At this point Mark just gets off to pissing people off. He can't help it.</p><p>"Screw you, Mark." Gyro flipped him the bird. "We still have a few more hours so let's try not to kill each other in the meantime."</p><p>"Has anyone seen my charger? I'm at 16%."</p><p>"SHUT UP, MARK! I SWEAR TO DUCK JESUS!" Gyro made a strangling motion.</p><p>"What was this about trying to not kill each other in the meantime?" Mark started roaming around the cabin to look for his charger. He peered under Gloria's bed. "Okay. #Ew. Who the hell put it next to the bloody sheets?"</p><p>Ellie shrugged. "Sorry, Mark. I did not see it there."</p><p>Mark gave Ellie a look. "Whatever. I hate everything about this place." He grumbled.</p><p>As Gyro continued to pace the room while Ellie attempted to calm Mark down and help clean off his charger, Boyd wandered on over to Gloria who was sitting on the bed, quiet. He struggled to get up but finally managed to squirm his little body in front of her.</p><p>"Hi! Sorry we didn't have a proper introduction earlier because of the current situation, but as I said before I'm Boyd!" He held out his hand to shake hers.</p><p>Gloria gave him a weak smile before shaking his hand. "Hey, I'm Gloria." With everything that just happened it was a little awkward and heartbreaking for her to be near a child right now. She couldn't help but look at him and feel sad.</p><p>He returned the smile with a bright one of his own. "My mom talks about you a lot! She says you're nice!" Boyd paused when he took notice of Gloria's expression and closed off body language. "Are you okay, Miss Gloria?"</p><p>"Oh yeah, I'm okay, don't worry… so you're Mark's son, right? And you're also a robot?"</p><p>He tilted his head. "How'd you know that?"</p><p>"Your dad told me about you before. I've also heard that you're the sweetest kid."</p><p>That made Boyd light up. He bounced ever so slightly on the bed and did a sweet little robot giggle. "I didn't know my dad talked about me before. That's nice to hear."</p><p>Gloria nodded before changing the subject. "Hey, Boyd, have you ever pulled a prank before? I don't mean to brag but I'm the master at pranking your dad. Your parents would probably never teach you so I could show you the ropes."</p><p>"I don't think I know what a prank is…?"</p><p>"A prank is like… playing a joke on someone. Okay I'll show you. You see your dad's phone in his back pocket?" Gloria pointed to Mark who wasn't paying them any mind while he was harassing Gyro and talking to Ellie.</p><p>Boyd nodded.</p><p>"Okay sneak up behind him, take his phone and come back to me with it, okay?"</p><p>"Okay!" The floorboards creaked as Boyd jumped down onto them, running over to Mark. He wrapped his arms around him, looking up. "Hi daddy!" He crept a hand around and laid it over his father's cellphone as he hugged his legs.</p><p>"Yo, little dude! What's up?" Mark looked down at Boyd, scruffing his hair.</p><p>"Nothing! I just wanted to give you a hug!"</p><p>He gave Boyd a thumbs up before returning his attention to both Ellie and Gyro.</p><p>Scuttling away, Boyd stood in front of Gloria's bed, handing her the phone. "I got it." He whispered.</p><p>"Not bad, Boyd! You were sneaky with that hug so that's bonus points. Okay watch this." Gloria got up long enough to hide Mark's phone in a very clever hiding location. She sat back down next to Boyd, taking out her flip phone (that she had this whole time. For plot. It's a flip phone so she still had lots of battery life) to call him.</p><p>Dubstep started playing. Mark reached for his back pocket within milliseconds and his face went blank when he realized it wasn't there. He whipped around, scanning the area. "Where the FUCK is my BABY!" Boyd raised a hand. "NOT YOU, KID! MY CELLPHONE CHILD!"</p><p>Since Gloria had a mental breakdown earlier, Mark didn't suspect her and viewed her as too useless to do anything at the moment, which meant he directed his anger at Gyro. "YOU ASSHOLE! WHAT THE FUCK IS YOUR ISSUE!?"</p><p>"WHAT ARE YOU EVEN TALKING ABOUT?! THAT TRASH MUSIC ISN'T COMING FROM ME!"</p><p>Mark jumped him, slamming Gyro onto the floor and wrapping his hands around his neck. "YOU TOOK IT WHEN I WASN'T LOOKING AND HID IT LIKE THE LITTLE SNEAKY BITCH YOU ARE!"</p><p>Boyd started to grow concerned that this prank was backfiring. He looked at Gloria, wondering if he should say something to call it off. She silently told him to hold off, wanting to see how far this would go. She would be worried for Gyro if she felt that Mark was actually a threat.</p><p>Gyro started pushing Mark's face in return, hitting him the beak. Mark fell back onto the floor. "AH! WHAT THE FUCK, YOU BITCH!" He stood up and charged Gyro, slamming him into the wall. Beach decor and roaches fell to the ground.</p><p>Mark's ringtone stopped so Gloria called his number again.</p><p>Gyro's head started to get slammed into the wall again and again by Mark, the pace picking up when he heard his ringtone again. Gyro's hat fell off to join the roaches and his glasses cracked.</p><p>The scene was shockingly similar to the encounter Ellie had with Steelbeak. She started trembling before finally stepping in. "MARK STOP!" She cried out, pushing Mark away from Gyro who fell to the ground and started crying immediately. "That was too far!"</p><p>"He started it! He took my phone!" Mark backed up to stand in the center of the room. He began to stomp like a child who was just told that there were no more dino-shaped nuggies.</p><p>"No I didn't!" Ellie hated Gyro as much as Mark did but seeing his head get slammed into the wall broke something inside her. She bent down to analyze his wounds. When she deduced that he was physically well, she nodded to herself before standing up to leave him to cry.</p><p>Mark huffed, still hearing his ringtone. He was going crazy!</p><p>Gloria realized that her prank went a little too far. She didn't want Gyro to get hurt! She handed Boyd her flip phone and whispered "Call your dad again in a few seconds okay? Don't get caught." She got up and went to go check on Gyro.</p><p>When Gloria walked past Mark, he realized that if it wasn't Gyro then it had to be the prank bitch herself. "If it wasn't Gyro, then it was Gloria! You bitch!"</p><p>Gloria crouched down next to Gyro helping him up. His ringtone went off again. "Mark, how could I be the one with your phone when I'm standing right here!" She held up her hands to show that she was empty handed.</p><p>"DON'T YOU LIE TO ME! I THOUGHT WE WERE ON GOOD TERMS! WHAT ABOUT MINECRAFT?!" He continued to yell at her when Ellie looked over to Boyd, she frowned when she saw the flip phone in his hands.</p><p>"Boyd?" She whispered when she approached him. "Why did you do that?"</p><p>He gulped nervously, looking between Ellie and Gloria. He really didn't want his new friend to take the blame. "It was me, mom." The phone was held out to Ellie in defeat.</p><p>Ellie wasn't mad, in fact, she smiled instead. "You aren't in trouble. Do not worry." She scanned the area, looking for Mark's phone. Something she could have done earlier if she wasn't so distracted by the fight. Mark's "cellphone child" was beneath the splintered floorboards. Ellie grabbed it, walking over to Mark who was still yelling a storm at Gloria. Ellie knew Gloria was a part of the plan for obvious reasons and it was nice to see her acting a bit more like herself again despite what she had just experienced. Ellie held out the phone. "You dropped it, Mark. It was on the floor a few feet away."</p><p>Mark gasped and snatched the phone away from Ellie and fell to the floor and held it close to his heart. "I'm so sorry, phone baby! I promise I'll never let you out of my sight again!" He kissed his phone screen.</p><p>Ellie wished she was that phone. UwU</p><p>"OPEN UP! I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE!" The door almost burst open from the power of Steelbeak's fist, wood flying off with each bang.</p><p>Everyone jumped back, Gyro cursing under his breath. "Shit, it's not sundown."</p><p>"What do we do now, genius?" Mark demanded.</p><p>Boyd, still on the bed, began to cry immediately from the sudden threat. In pure panic, Ellie ran over to his aid, not concerned for her safety anymore. She picked him up, shushing him. "It's going to be okay, I promise. I won't let anything happen to you."</p><p>"ALL OF YOU ARE DEAD! YOU HEAR ME? DEAD!" Steelbeak started throwing his side at the door, attempting to knock it down. From the inside the gang could see the bolts beginning to loosen. "WAIT UNTIL I GET MY HANDS ON YOU, MARK BEAKS!"</p><p>"#what? Why me?! I'm fabulous and a billionaire! This is so not chill!"</p><p>Gyro shushed him before heading to the window at the opposite side of the cabin and opened it. "Okay everyone sneak out the back. We'll hide in the woods until sundown." He didn't bother to check to see if anyone understood what he was laying down. He hopped out, helping Gloria after him.</p><p>"Move!" Mark shoved Ellie out of the way to go next.</p><p>"Mark!"</p><p>He turned to her in annoyance before realizing what was wrong with the current picture. "I mean, women and children first…?"</p><p>Ellie thanked him, not taking his idiocy personal as per usual. She handed Boyd to Gyro (ew) before going out herself and taking him back, giving Gyro a look even though he literally just helped her kid out but whatever. Mark was the last to yeet out the window which was crazy because Steelbeak wanted him to die first.</p><p>Gyro closed the window behind them.</p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>Sunset couldn't have fallen any slower. The five had sat in silent fear underneath pine trees for a few hours now, each passing second making them more paranoid. Luckily Mark wasn't being too annoying because he just passed the time playing Mario Kart with the remainder of his battery.</p><p>It had taken a while for Boyd to cease his sobbing but he managed to quiet down after his mother started rocking him in her lap gently. He hadn't let go of her the entire time, despite him only knowing her for a day. Mark offered to play Mario Kart with him a few times but that didn't really help so he shrugged it off and started posting selfies on Twitter with the tag "beinghunteddownlol!" and the caption "Why is everyone so obsessed with me?!" An obvious nod to the cinematic classic: Mean Girls, Mark's favorite movie.</p><p>Boyd left Ellie's lap to hand Gloria her phone back. "Sorry if your prank didn't work out the way you wanted it to." He sniffled.</p><p>Gloria put her phone away. "Hey don't worry about it, Boyd! Sorry that your first prank sucked. I promise I'll help you prank your dad again when we get home, alright?"</p><p>"Thanks, Aunt Gloria." He rocked back and forth on his feet awkwardly before running back over to Ellie.</p><p>Gloria's heart warmed from being called "Aunt". She may have lost a child but perhaps she gained a nephew.</p><p>Gyro stood up, dusting off the shorts he utterly despised. "Alright, we should head out now. We've waited here long enough."</p><p>"Thank Duck Jesus! I am so sweaty!"</p><p>Gloria snorted before saying "Being in a body bag isn't going to help with that, Mark."</p><p>Mark glared at her, but started walking toward where he thought body bags were instead. They did have a "truce" after all. He wondered how long that would last. "C'mon, Mark Foursome, let's go move around dead bodies." He would have said "fivesome" but that would've included Boyd which was very very wrong.</p><p>"We did not agree on that name!" Gyro snapped.</p><p>"Yeah. Whatever. Rant about it to the corpses."</p><p>"What's so bad about our group name?" Boyd looked up at Ellie for an answer.</p><p>"Not now, Boyd." She glanced up ahead at Mark, wondering when would be the next time they could get romantic action now that they had a kid around. Maybe Gloria could babysit sometime.</p><p>Soon enough they all came across a pile of filled body bags concerningly close to the camp. Steelbeak wasn't around from what they could see but there was no doubt he was searching like a madman. Who knew one bad date could've started a blood bath.</p><p>Gyro walked over to one, unzipping it. "Bleh. Disgusting." He covered his nose as best as he could as the smell of death infiltrated his nostrils. He almost threw up while dragging out the body that had been rotting there for who knows how long. Hopefully whatever plague the (now dead) guy had was long gone and wouldn't infect him.</p><p>Mark gagged. "You mean to tell me we all need to do that?!"</p><p>Gyro ignored him, as he covered the body up with leaves and branches before sitting himself down in the bag. "Are you all going to just stand there or what?"</p><p>Ellie shrugged nonchalantly before dragging out bodies for the rest of the squad. She didn't offer to do that for Gyro for… reasons. Ellie had more strength than she let on so moving and hiding the bodies didn't take very long. "Okay. There's a bag for everyone." She announced while wiping her hands off. "There is a child sized one for you, Boyd."</p><p>Boyd looked at said child sized bag. "But I don't want to go in there alone."</p><p>Ellie didn't understand his concern very well. "Why not?"</p><p>"...because being alone is scary." He wiped his eyes.</p><p>"Be a man, Boyd. I didn't raise you to be a wimp." Mark said while reluctantly getting into his own bag. He almost tripped since he was tweeting at the same time about the latest fashion trends.</p><p>Now being even more concerned for Boyd, Ellie looked at her own body bag. It took her a few seconds but she came to a solution that would hopefully appease him. "The adult bags are rather large so you can squeeze in with me Boyd."</p><p>He nodded as she brought him to a hug before walking over to their soon to be shared body bag.</p><p>"You doing alright there, Gloria?" Gyro finally asked. She had been standing there staring at the bags for quite some time.</p><p>"As alright as one can be when you're going into a body bag, I guess."</p><p>He nodded, though he was still very concerned about her mental state based on what had happened that day. Gyro could only hope she would continue to stay alright.</p><p>Everyone zipped up their body bags to sit in darkness, waiting to be picked up by a truck and taken away.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0017"><h2>17. Chicky Nuggies</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>One hundred body bags, at the very least, were dumped out of one garbage truck. What looked like a garbage truck anyway. There were many trucks along with the one so the amount of bodies that was possibly there was not a nice thought.</p><p>The bodies joined hundreds of others next to huge piles of trash in miles of stripped land. A garbage dump brought you by Glomgold Industries. The area was smoggy and the garbage truck pulling away (the side reading Glomgold Bodies and Fun next to a picture of an anime Glomgold giving a thumbs up) didn't help.</p><p>Gyro unzipped his bag when he believed the garbage trucks had moved far enough away. The smell hit him immediately and he tried to wave it away; like that would be any help. He coughed, climbing to the top of the mound of body bags he was under to look around. "Gloria? Anyone?"</p><p>Mark was already at the base of the mound, outside of his body bag. He was just sitting on the ground, tweeting away with the last of his battery life. "Yo yo yoooooooo! Down here, nerd!"</p><p>"Goddamnit." Gyro wanted to find anyone else but him, even Ellie, the robot who threatened to slice his neck open. He slid down the pile, which was uncomfortably high, to meet up with the self-absorbed billionaire. "Have you seen or heard anyone else?"</p><p>"Who?" Mark didn't look up from his phone, lowkey ignoring him.</p><p>"You know, Gloria, or your family?" The fact this man had a girlfriend and child was horrifying.</p><p>"Oooooooohhhhh yeahhhhhh THOSE guys! Nope, haven't seen them."</p><p>Gyro skimmed his face with his hands, wiping some of the sweat away. "Could you perhaps help look?"</p><p>"Look for what?"</p><p>"GLORIA AND YOUR FAMILY!"</p><p>Mark finally pried his eyes away from his phone to look around. "They aren't here?"</p><p>"I don't know where they are so I need your help to find them!"</p><p>"Uuuuuuughhhhhhhhh! Fiiiiiiiinnneeeee! God I have to do everything myself here!" He put his phone away and started heading back up the body mound.</p><p>Gyro followed him. "I await the day Gloria lets me kill you if she doesn't do it herself first or Ellie breaks up with you OR hopefully both. You are unbelievable!"</p><p>This only boosted Mark's ego more for some reason. He gave his signature "Pew pew pew!" speech and gesture before going back to ignoring him again.</p><p>Scrunching his face, Gyro decided to turn his attention elsewhere before Mark joined the dead bodies again. "Gloria?! Gloriaaaaa?!" He put his hands around his mouth, awaiting a call back.</p><p>"I FOUND HER!" Mark yelled from a few yards away. Gyro jumped up, desperately running over to Mark which he would hopefully only have to do once in his life.</p><p>"Where is she?!"</p><p>Mark pointed to an already opened body bag, the zipper seemed to have broken some time prior. "There."</p><p>Walking closer, Gyro studied the black and blue beat up, and also half decayed body. He shivered. "Mark, you do realize that's not Gloria, right?" He hoped to Duck Jesus Mark wasn't that stupid because then they would be here forever.</p><p>Mark looked down at the corpse again before laughing. "Oh yeah my bad!" He pointed to the open body bag. "She's too pretty to be Gloria!" His awful attempt at a joke made him laugh harder.</p><p>The laugh echoed through the dump but quickly turned to an echoing scream when Gyro pushed him off the body mountain. He wiped his hands, watching Mark fall to his possible death. He rolled and rolled like a loose tire and it was funny as hell. Gyro didn't bother to watch the whole thing as he continued his desperate search for Gloria.</p><p>A little farther down from where Gyro and Mark resided, Ellie gasped as she dug herself out of a pool of bodies with Boyd in her other arm which hadn't made the task any easier. She didn't need to gasp considering she couldn't breath but she saw other people do that when emerging from something so she figured that's what you were supposed to do.</p><p>Ellie looked even shittier than before, covered in grime with most of her hair down and tangled. Not to mention the truck ride over was so rough she was even more dented.</p><p>She looked down at Boyd who wasn't looking to hot himself. "Are you okay?"</p><p>Boyd had no time to respond before they both saw Mark barreling towards them from the hill. It didn't take long for all three of them to crash and hit the ground together, adding even more dirt to their fit.</p><p>Ellie had landed right on top of Boyd but the little dude was still aight. "Dad?"</p><p>"Sup?" Mark's face was in the dirt. At this point the man didn't even want to get up. He just wanted a nap.</p><p>After helping Boyd up and dusting him off, Ellie walked over to Mark. "Why were you tumbling down a hill of dead bodies?"</p><p>"Ugh because ASSHOLE up there pushed me off!" He screamed "asshole" hoping that Gyro would hear his complaints. Gyro didn't.</p><p>Even though Mark didn't want to get up, Ellie helped him anyway. It was like picking up a screaming toddler to put it lightly. When he looked at her he grimaced. "Wow, you look like shit."</p><p>God, Mark was acting like more of an asshole than usual. Someone must've woken up on the wrong side of the body bag.</p><p>"Your outfit is torn, you are scraped up, and you are covered in dirt and feces from corpses. Based on society's standards for beauty, you do not fit the quota yourself." Ellie stated matter-of-factly. "On another note, I do need major repairs when we return to Duckburg. I do not feel comfortable with my wires being exposed, I'm indecent."</p><p>"Oh true true! Well, hopefully Waddle is still doing Gucci with Glomgold being a dictator and all… Because I can't do anything if I don't have my rocking ass building!"</p><p>"You need to stop swearing around Boyd." Ellie eyed Mark up and down. "And you also need to wipe some of the feces on you off. It is very disgusting."</p><p>Mark lifted his shirt over his head to use it as a napkin but it didn't really help all that much. "'Kay, am I good now?"</p><p>"I think it's worse." Boyd whispered; he was trying his best to not be rude.</p><p>Mark shrugged it off. "Eh, I'll make it a fashion trend. That'll be easier than washing my face." He took a selfie of his "new look" and waited for the trend to take off.</p><p>Considering Mark hated nature so much, it confused Ellie why he was so "chill" about having legitimate feces on his face. It was very unsanitary to say the least. She figured he hit his head on the way down. "We should start looking for Gloria along with Gyro."</p><p>Gyro, who was about half a mile away, was getting more worried by the second. "Gloria?" He knew that if she was buried deep enough, it meant possible suffocation. He tried not to think about that too much. "Gloria?!"</p><p>"Gyro!?"</p><p>He shot his head to the right to see Gloria limping over to him. She had some scrapes, probably from being dumped out from the truck so aggressively. Lighting up, Gyro ran over to embrace her. "I'm so glad you're okay! I was worried sick!" He let go of her to study her expression and her wounds. "Are you okay? Did you break anything?" Gyro was a scientist, not a doctor, but he felt the need to ask anyway. Okay he currently had a doctorate but that's besides the point.</p><p>"No, I don't think so." She looked down at her leg too. "Just a bruise at the least. God, where were you? I've been looking all over!"</p><p>His normal Gyro attitude came back. "I was looking for you!"</p><p>"Not hard enough!" She was only joking. Sort of. "But anyways, where are the others? I wanna get out of here."</p><p>"I have no idea, but I pushed Mark down a mound of bodies." He shrugged and rolled his eyes. "I don't even think he's looking for Ellie and Boyd, he didn't seem to care all that much. But that's just him being him."</p><p>"Woah woah hold up!" Gloria put her hands up in a 'stop' gesture. "You pushed Mark Beaks off a mound and I wasn't there to see it?! Goddamnit!"</p><p>"If only Lil' Bulb was here to record it." He sighed. "Lil Bulb…." Gyro missed that little maniac and the squad. Robots were his only friends. Specifically robots that couldn't talk.</p><p>"Aw…" Gloria held Gyro's hand "You'll be back to your usual lab soon enough! I'm sure lil' bitch is doing fine!" Lil' Bitch was a nickname Gloria had for Lil' Bulb because why the hell not.</p><p>"Speaking of "usual"," He said in quotations. "You seem to be acting really okay after… earlier…"</p><p>Gloria flashed him a peace sign "I use jokes as a coping mechanism to escape my repressed and negative feelings!"</p><p>"Oh, um, okay. Well, if you ever need to talk I-"</p><p>"THE MARK FOURSOME IS BACK! WOOOOH! PEW PEW PEW!" Mark slid down the hill (he had just climbed to get a get view for instagram) followed by Ellie and Boyd who were climbing down like normal people, being respectful to the dead.</p><p>"Here we go…" Gyro let go of Gloria. "Hi… Mark and friends."</p><p>"Fuck you too, Gyro."</p><p>Ellie walked over with Boyd. "Hello, Gloria. It's nice to see you again. I'm happy you are not dead like your child." She said, obviously not knowing how insulting and insensitive that was. Boyd just smiled and nodded his head beside her. Jeez, the dude was being raised by two psychopaths.</p><p>Gloria had no idea how to respond to something like that. She crossed her arms. "Good to see you too…"</p><p>"So, like…#thisislame. What are we going to do now?" Mark whined. "My phone is on 7%! And I don't know about you, but I don't see any outlets on nearby dead bodies!"</p><p>"That is a good question…" Gyro was referring to the "what are we going to do now" statement and not the rest. "I have no idea. This dump seems like it goes on forever and we don't know what's outside of it. More "Godgold" owned land?"</p><p>"Mark?"</p><p>"Yo?"</p><p>Gloria pointed to his phone. "Why don't you just call somebody?"</p><p>He scoffed. "Like who? Ma Beagle? Magica? Oh, I know! Maybe my interns who are all now in Glomgold's little cult!"</p><p>She put her hands up. "Damn. Sorry, I was just asking, dude." She looked up at Gyro "And I doubt there is anyone from the McDuck family we can call who hasn't already been captured or killed or who knows what…"</p><p>"There's probably Donald. No one wants him. But don't bother because he won't be any help." Gyro waved Gloria's suggestion off. "I guess our only option for now is to walk and see what's outside the area."</p><p>"UGHHH! MORE WALKING!" Mark threw his head back. "Fine! Whatever! But just so everyone knows, I think this is unbelievable!"</p><p>"Trust me. We all know." Leading the group, Gyro started searching the area for any possible trash that could be used, or better yet, an end in sight. So far there was nothing.</p><p>The group walked for about an hour, but it felt like a whole lot more.</p><p>Ellie had started carrying Boyd so he wouldn't trip over bodies. Mark didn't want to because he was too busy playing Mario Kart. Finally Boyd piped up. "Do you guys hear that?"</p><p>"The sound of me crushing this level?! Uh YEAHHHH!" Mark gave himself a mental high five. He was in the lead and not a blue shell in sight.</p><p>"No. There's like… a buzzing noise."</p><p>Ellie listened closely since she had the same quality of hearing as him. She shook her head. "No, I don't hear anything. But my hearing could still be damaged from my… earlier experience."</p><p>Gloria looked at the horizon but there was nothing for miles. "I hear it too but I don't see anything."</p><p>Gyro started to turn in circles, looking for the source of the noise. "Yeah. Where on Earth is that coming from?"</p><p>"I'm telling you guys, it's me WINNING!"</p><p>"No dad!" Boyd smiled and pointed up at the sky. "It's coming from the really strange plane that seems to be getting bigger!"</p><p>"Boyd is right." Ellie nodded at his comment, calmly. "It's heading in our direction very quickly." It took her a second to realize the danger in what she just said. "It's heading in our direction!"</p><p>Everyone screamed and scrambled into different directions to get away from the plane that was seconds from crashing. God, no one was bad at flying planes except….</p><p>"Hiya, Everybody! Woah… Neat place!" Launchpad, yes, THE launchpad that got shot, possessed, and then murdered, was now standing in front of everyone, leaning against the door frame of the plane.</p><p>"LAUNCHPAD?!" Everyone shouted except Ellie and Boyd. Ellie started having flashbacks of having her head blown in and decapitated but whatever.</p><p>"Are you guys having a bonfire or something?" Launchpad felt sad because he forgot his s'more kit. Oh well, maybe next time.</p><p>"How the FUCK are you even alive?!" Mark screamed while taking pictures of the scene. He would get more followers if he pretended he survived a second plane crash.</p><p>"Oh right! The last time you guys saw me I was dead in Agartha!" He laughed. "I'll explain my epic journey home on the plane! C'mon!" He ran back inside the plane, keeping the door open for everyone.</p><p>Gyro turned to Gloria. "Wait, he died in Agartha?"</p><p>"Yeah I killed him a second time after he got shot. Or at least… I thought I did?"</p><p>"Duck Jesus. What else did I miss?"</p><p>Everyone entered the plane except Ellie who remained at the bottom of the stairs, still holding Boyd close to her. "I am not getting on your plane." She spat.</p><p>"Hmm? Did you say something Miss E?" Launchpad stuck his head out again.</p><p>"I said I am not getting on your plane! You expect me to trust you after what you did to me?!"</p><p>"I did something?" He scratched his chin and looked at the sky as if he was in deep thought.</p><p>Mark pushed L.P. out of the way for a second. "C'mon! We don't have time for this! It's Launchpad, he can't do shit." He waved his arm at the buff duck to emphasize his point.</p><p>She sighed. "Alright. But I'd be happy to kill him a third time." Ellie climbed up the stairs, quickly walking past Launchpad with Boyd. She immediately went over the seats to strap him in knowing what kind of pilot Launchpad was.</p><p>"That's the spirit!"</p><p>The plane soon took off even though it was slightly damaged after crashing but Launchpad insisted it was in good enough condition to fly again.</p><p>"So, uh, you gonna tell us the story of how you survived?" Gloria finally asked after a while of awkward silence. She also wondered why he was flying above a dump in Florida but that would be a question for later.</p><p>"Oh yeah! Okay so after I was left for dead, some nice thug guys helped me out and basically nursed me back to health. I think they had the power to bring me back to life? I can't remember but anyways long story short I lived in Agartha for a while, rebuilt my old plane with the scrap pieces out of what the old HQ building was and flew away! Oh!" Launchpad stopped to pull a postcard out of his bomber jacket "I also brought back a postcard for Mr. McD!" He waved it in the air before putting it back in his jacket pocket.</p><p>Gyro did his usual eye roll. "Mr. McD is imprisoned by Glomgold. Maybe even dead."</p><p>"Oh what?!" Launchpad turned around in his seat to look at his friends, not keeping his eyes on the sky. "Boy that sure is a bummer, Dr. G! Don't worry though! I'm sure with a little teamwork, we can save Mr. McD!"</p><p>"Yeah, no." Mark laughed, now tweeting instead of playing Mario Kart. "Scrooge can handle himself. I saved him once and my character development has gone back down so I'm not willing to do it again."</p><p>"Eyes on the road, Launchpad!" Gloria snapped at him.</p><p>"Oh right!" Launchpad turned back around in his chair before adding. "Man you're probably really confused or something, Miss G, because we aren't on a road exactly!"</p><p>"Why were you flying over Florida?" Gyro asked the second question everyone wanted to know.</p><p>"Oh! I was just sightseeing on my way back to Duckburg!"</p><p>"Wait…" Gyro held his hands out, swaying them just a tad. "You mean to tell me you haven't seen the current state Duckburg is in right now?!"</p><p>"Yep! That's right! But I'm sure It's very beautiful!"</p><p>Mark walked over to L.P. "Sure is, pal. Sure is. ANYWAYSSSS, you got snacks cuz I'm #hungy!"</p><p>"Yeah! I have chicky nuggies in the mini fridge over there!" Launchpad pointed behind him before adding "I thought they were called chicken nuggets but Dewey insisted that they were actually called chicky nuggies!" (A/N: Don't question birds eating chicken, kay? We just wanted to write Launchpad saying chicky nuggies.)</p><p>"THANKZ!" Mark yeeted over the fridge, taking them all for himself before sitting down beside Ellie. He shoved a bunch in his mouth at once.</p><p>Ellie turned to Mark. "Do you mind sharing some with Boyd? He has been hungry for a few hours now."</p><p>Mark looked at her with a mouthful of nuggies stuffed in his mouth before dropping one single nuggie in Boyd's hand.</p><p>"Ummm…" Boyd looked at the chicken nugget and then back up at his dad. "Can I have a bit more, please?"</p><p>Mark sighed with his mouth still full before dropping two more nuggies in his hands.</p><p>"Mark…" Ellie warned. She knew he wasn't good at being a dad but this was ridiculous.</p><p>Mark sighed louder before giving Boyd the rest of the nuggies. He sulked and marched to the other side of the plane next to Gloria and Gyro to go and pout.</p><p>"... She made me give away my chicky nuggies."</p><p>Gyro looked at him. "She made you give away your chicken nuggets to your son who was hungry?"</p><p>"Yeah! What gives, right?!"</p><p>"How do you manage to beat your own highscore of being the world's biggest douche all the time? Is it exhausting?" Gloria said while trying to scoot away from him as best as she could given that she had a seatbelt on.</p><p>Mark didn't catch on to the insult and prided himself instead. "I guess I'm just that awesome!"</p><p>Gyro rested his head into his hands, not knowing what to say anymore. He didn't want to go back to a now communist Duckburg, but it would be worth it if he could be five more feet away from Mark.</p><p>"Sooooooooooo what are you guys doing?" Mark said annoyingly to start a conversation.</p><p>"Mark." Gyro snapped. "Why don't you go talk to your girlfriend or something and not us."</p><p>"Or better yet just jump out the plane." Gloria added.</p><p>"Well, aren't you guys lovely to talk to."</p><p>Launchpad finally interrupted before an argument broke out. "Hey guys! Looks like we're almost at Duckburg! Which means I have great news!" He stopped there, waiting for someone to ask what the great news was. When no one did he continued on his own. "Which means we're gonna crash soon! Sound good?"</p><p>"Launchpad. May I request you DON'T do that?" Gyro asked.</p><p>"Sorry but no can do, Dr. G! It's just my style of doing things!" He pressed the head of his Darkwing Duck figurine. "Let's get dangerous!"</p><p>Ellie reached out her hand. "Launchpad, don't!"</p><p>The plane started going down and everyone screamed.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Sorry for lack of illustrations. I fell behind on this chapter because I got sick. I'll post an illustration for this chapter eventually and I'll get back on track.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0018"><h2>18. Steelbeak Loses His Marblez</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Imagine you're watching a movie and on the screen you see a menacing looking silhouette standing in the window of a scottish themed capitol building, hands behind their back. Smog surrounds the area, the city has turned into a communist party government, anarchy mixed in there as well to provide further chaos.</p><p>The camera zooms in, the figure becomes more clear. It's Glomgold decked out in his Gucci kilt, plaid crocs, and new Ray-bans. He has no shirt on because he wants to show off his muscles to the world. He is smirking as he looks down at citizens bowing down to giant statues of him while wearing their mandatory city uniforms.</p><p>And then you realize there is no movie screen because this whole thing is real and it's your reality. Sucks to suck.</p><p>While you suffer in the streets, the story continues. Glomgold has continued to stand in his building, eating away at his sour cream and onion potato chips. And yes, an anime version of him is on the bag. He looked down at his golden watch (made from gold he stole from Scrooge) and laughed maniacally. "Perfect..." He murmured to himself, dropping the now empty chip bag for the roomba to pick up even though it always jammed when trying to do so. "It's almost time for my daily viewing of a starving Scrooge crying." He cockroach crawled over to the door, still shirtless, to go annoy Scrooge when there was an unexpected knock. "WOT?! IT'S NOT TIME FOR MY 4:15 EARL GREY TEA!"</p><p>"Supreme Ruler Godgold, it is two of your God Bots to announce our daily report."</p><p>Glomgold threw his head back and loud a two year old scream before opening the door. "FINNNNNNEEEEEEE! BUT MAKE IT QUICK!"</p><p>The two God Bots stepped in, giving a salute. "Thank you, sir." Said one. "The city continues to lean in your favor. Due to disease and starvation, the people have become more desperate and are donating to your shrines like crazy. A lot of women, and some men, have contracted Stockholm syndrome and have fallen madly in love for their ruler. To sum up everything shortly, people have never adored you more than they have now. You have all the power you could ever want. The people view you not only as their God, but a trustworthy leader."</p><p>"Oh, I see..." Glomgold scratched his beard. "WELL, THAT'S COOL! CAN YOU TWO LEAVE NOW?!"</p><p>The other God Bot put a hand out. "We still have our daily bad news to announce."</p><p>"UGHHHHHH!"</p><p>"⅙ of the city has burned down from anarchist chaos, but that is of no issue considering it was the lower class part of Glomburg. Due to the high death rate, there are not enough people to be recruited for mandatory jobs so we are low on workers in the sewage, fast food, electricity, and construction industries."</p><p>"I don't care about all that. As long as people love me I say it's fine! You hear me? FINE! MUAHAHAHAHAH!"</p><p>"Supreme Leader Godgold, if you do nothing about the death rate you may not have people to rule at all in a few years."</p><p>Glomgold's brain went blank. Well actually if you put it that way then it just stayed the same. "Well...uhh er...I KNOW!" He threw his stubby arms in the air. "WE DO EXECUTIONS EVERY 2 WEEKS AND ONCE A MONTH THERE IS A WEEK LONG FEAST AND PARTY HELD IN MY HONOR! SOUND GOOD?"</p><p>"Yes-"</p><p>"DON'T ANSWER THAT BECAUSE I DON'T CARE! NOW GET THE HELL OUT, I NEED TO GO BOTHER SCROOGIE!"</p><p>"Well, actually sir, we have one more bad thing to announce..."</p><p>The room went more silent than Glomgold's brain for a second. "WOT?!"</p><p>The kilt wearing God Bot was afraid to start. This news was the worst of them all. "You see, a few inmates have escaped Camp Godgold..."</p><p>"WOT?!"</p><p>"The camp population didn't match up with the death rate so Mr. Steelbeak took attendance and he found out who was missing."</p><p>Some noise was being made in Glomgold's brain now, but it was just a fly. "WHO THE FUCK MANAGED TO ESCAPE MY GODLY CAMP?!"</p><p>"Five people, sir. Gyro Gearloose, Mark Beaks, Gloria, some little kid, and your niece."</p><p>"WOT?! ME ROBO NIECE?!" He waddled back and forth in pure anger and rage.</p><p>"Yes. That's what we just said Supreme Ruler Godgold." The God Bot said. "We assume they managed to escape through body bags. Camp bots searched the dump but nothing was found."</p><p>Glomgold took out a plaid pistol and shot the God Bot that had just spoken in the head. The other God Bot jumped back in fear. "THAT'S WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU PISS ME OFF, GOT IT OTHER RANDOM GOD BOT?!"</p><p>The God Bot nodded rapidly.</p><p>"If they aren't in Florida then they are here. Search all of Duckburg until they are hunted down. I want them burned at the stake."</p><p>"Sir, yes, sir!" The God Bot YEETED out of the room as fast as he could so he didn't end up like his buddy.</p><p>Glomgold took out his My Little Pony themed waddle phone and dialed up someone who's name was "Steelfuck". The person on the other end picked up immediately. "STEELBEAK YOU BITCH! YOU LET ME ROBO NIECE AND HER FUCKING SQUAD ESCAPE?! YOU'RE GOOD FOR NOTHING!"</p><p>"I- I, erm..." Steelbeak didn't have a brain with thoughts either so trying to conjure up something to say was a bit difficult. "I'm sorry Supreme Leader Glom- Godgold! It won't happen again!"</p><p>"QUIT YER STAMMERING YOU STUPID FUCK! YOU'RE FIRED! DO YOU HEAR ME?! NO WAIT, YOU'RE NOT FIRED JUST YET! FIND ME ROBO NIECE AND HER STUPID FRIENDS AND THEN I'LL FIRE YOU!"</p><p>Steelbeak's steel beak fell wide open. "WHAT?! YOU CAN'T FIRE ME! YOU NEED ME TO RUN THIS CAMP! THIS WOULDN'T HAVE HAPPENED IF YOU LET ME KILL ELLIE BUT YOU DIDN'T!"</p><p>"WOT DID YOU JUST SAY TO ME!? YOU CANNOT SPEAK TO YOUR GOD THAT WAY!"</p><p>"WELL I JUST DID! AND THIS WHOLE THING IS YOUR FAULT! YOU NEED ME BECAUSE I'M THE ONLY ONE WHO GET THINGS BACK IN ORDER AGAIN!"</p><p>"MY FAULT AARGGHHHHH!" He started screaming and jumping up and down when no words could describe how angry he was. "FUCK THAT CAMP! YOUR NEW ORDER IS TO FIND ME ROBO NIECE AND HER STUPID FRIENDS SO I CAN ROAST THEM ALIVE! DON'T MAKE ME SAY IT AGAIN, STEELFUCK!"</p><p>Steelbeak took a deep breath, knowing he had barely escaped death at the hands of a currently shirtless dictator. "Yes, Supreme Leader Godgold." He swore under his breath after. Sucking up to this asshole started to get to him.</p><p>"NOW GET YOUR ASS BACK TO DUCKBURG AND COMPLETE YOUR TASK SO I CAN FIRE YOU! PEACE!"</p><p>The line went dead and Steelbeak pulled the phone away from his bird ear hole and looked down at it with pure fucking rage. He crushed it in his hand that was now scrunched into a fist, the metal fell down to the old carpet to join all the coffee stains. "You're going down, Glomgold. You and everyone else who ever did me wrong."</p><p>______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>Dewey sat on the sofa of Scrooge's old mansion, he just assumed the old fart was dead by now, and drank his 50th something can of Canada Dry Ginger Ale while playing animal crossing next to Webby. "Man, I know we're like in self quarantine to avoid disease and dictatorship but this isn't too bad." (A/N: quarantine is still happening when we're writing this so chill)</p><p>Webby, with her legs crossed, watched Dewey trap another villager in the middle of a pond. "Shouldn't we do something about all this? After what happened to Lena and Violet... I don't know what to do anymore."</p><p>Dewey paused his game. "What can we do? All the adults are gone."</p><p>"There's my grandma!"</p><p>"She doesn't count. She's always out helping sick citizens or whatever."</p><p>"Maybe we can help her out?"</p><p>"And get infected? Yeah, no. I'm gonna sit here and continue harassing my villagers."</p><p>Webby bit her bottom lip. "Duckburg is being destroyed by Glomgold, we need to take him down."</p><p>"Eh," He shrugged. "I know I sound like Louie right now but honestly who cares? He'll take himself down eventually. He's lasting a bit longer than I expected but whatever."</p><p>"Are you worried about Uncle Scrooge?"</p><p>"Meh." He continued his game, jamming at the buttons. "SCREW OFF TOM NOOK! I AM NOT PAYING 250,000 BELLS! GET YOUR CAPITALIST ASS OUT OF HERE!"</p><p>"WATCH YOUR FUCKING LANGUAGE!"</p><p>Dewey got smacked upside the head. "OW!" He dropped the remote and turned around to see his mother next to Huey (who was still a crying mess) and Louie. "Mom?! What are you doing here?! I thought you got sent away to the camp!" They were all covered in dirt and sweat and they were all still wearing their ugly camp uniforms.</p><p>"We saw some weirdos sneak into body bags so we decided to do the same and then took a train ride back to Duckburg. Cool, right? Oh! We also put dead bodies in our cabin so it looked like we were still there. Haha, suckers!"</p><p>Huey looked down at the floor "The corpse in my summer camp bed looked strangely like me..." The poor guy is getting PTSD on top of his PTSD.</p><p>Della laughed, giving Huey a light punch. "Haha! You kidder. Anyway, what are you guys up to?"</p><p>"Playing Animal Crossing New Horizons."</p><p>"Oh sick!" Della pushed Dewey out of the way. "Let me play!"</p><p>"MOM!"</p><p>All of this commotion made Louie tired so he decided to crash in the house boat.</p><p>"Wait." Webby tapped Della's shoulder.</p><p>"What? I'm a little busy here, Debby."</p><p>"Shouldn't we do something about Scrooge and Glomgold and the communist stuff going on."</p><p>"Nah. Glomgold won't last much longer."</p><p>Dewey looked over at Webby and smiled. "Told you."</p><p>Louie entered the houseboat, yawning and scratching his back. Man, he smelled, but he didn't smell worse than the houseboat so whatever. He saw his Uncle Donald rocking by the heater. "Oh hey, Uncle Donald. Forgot you were even in this fanfiction. Anyway, me, Della and friends are back. But not Scrooge, he's probs dead but whatever." He stuffed his hands in his hoodie and shrugged. The first thing he did when he got home was put his lucky hoodie on. His arms felt naked without it. God he hated short sleeves and he had no idea how Huey did it all the time.</p><p>"Ahfjhgueibubuwbvuwg bvuiwv uvrvbiubv bvuiywev!"</p><p>"Yeah, I still don't know what you're saying. I'm going to go take a nap. Louie out."</p><p>____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>Gyro took out his key card and opened his lab back up. It didn't have any power but the doors still worked thankfully.</p><p>The Mark foursome, now fivesome with Launchpad, had crashed just a mile outside of Duckburg and had to sneak all the way to the money bin. How did they do it? Who knows. We aren't writing that for a reason.</p><p>"Alright." Gyro held out his arm to welcome everybody in. "Make yourselves at home or something." The fact he was letting Mark Beaks into his lab made him utterly pissed but he had to deal for the moment. Maybe Lil' Bulb and friends could strangle him in his sleep and it could be passed off as a natural death.</p><p>Gloria didn't even bother to thank him. She was so tired from everything and immediately headed over to her little corner where she slept all that time ago. When she was about to pass the hell out, Launchpad decided to lay down next to her.</p><p>"Hey, how are you doing, Miss G?"</p><p>Gyro wasn't around to save her from her current predicament because he was having a reunion with his bulbs.</p><p>Gloria sighed. She wasn't in the mood to talk to Launchpad. "I'm fine... Hey you're not mad at me for like, murdering evil you in Agartha, right?"</p><p>"Oh! That's right, I forgot you were the one who killed me. Don't really remember that, haha!" He scratched his head. "Don't worry about it! It's "chill" as Dewey says."</p><p>"I don't know who Dewey is but alright."</p><p>"So..." He looked over at Gloria. "Since we're back in Duckburg, what are we going to do now?" For once, Launchpad had not asked a stupid question. He was actually concerned for the state of Duckburg when he first saw it. "Me, I'm probably gonna rewatch my old Darkwing Duck episodes and then teach myself how to parallel park again!" He added, making him seem stupid again.</p><p>"Well, we can stay here for a bit but we should really start coming up with a plan to overthrow Glomgold and get Duckburg back in order."</p><p>"I dunno, Miss G. That sounds pretty dangerous, even for me."</p><p>"Maybe you can run him over with a car?"</p><p>His face lit up when he realized he could tell Gloria a fun fact about himself. "Oh! I can't decide what I hit and don't hit, I just do!" L.P. decided to curl up in a ball. He hadn't asked Gloria if he could sleep there but he just figured he could because "Miss G" was just that nice of a person. "Maybe you can talk to Gyro about saving Duckburg! He helped me defeat a robot once, well Gizmoduck did but Gyro was there!"</p><p>"Yeah I'll talk to him about that after he's done making out with all of his lightbulbs over there."</p><p>A blush washed over Launchpad's face, which wasn't good news. "Speaking of making out, I kind of like you Miss G. Do you want to go on a date right now? Here on the blanket." Pointing down at the blanket they were indeed sitting on, he continued before she could answer the question with a short story of his. "I had this crush on an alien girl but she denied my request to get coffee with her." Poor L.P. here had no idea Gloria was dating Gyro.</p><p>Oh. My. Fucking. God. "Oh- Oh god Launchpad no." She awkwardly patted his shoulder. "I'm sorry but I'm dating Gyro..." God could this day get any more worse?</p><p>Launchpad covered his beak. "Oh, I-I'm sorry, Miss G! I had no idea..." He teared up a little, hoping Gloria wouldn't notice. "Do- do you and Gyro makeout sometimes?"</p><p>Gloria was trying her best to gesture to literally ANYONE else in the room to come and help her get out of this horribly awkward situation. Launchpad was too stupid to really notice. "I mean, yeah?"</p><p>"Oh..." Launchpad turned around, with Gloria's pillow, and snuggled it while he fell asleep. Gloria was left to lay on nothing but a blanket. It didn't take him long to fall asleep. It probably had something to do with the lack of brain cell activity to keep him awake.</p><p>Gloria sighed and walked toward Gyro and the gang, hoping that she could get some sleep later.</p><p>When Gyro saw Gloria approaching, he smiled softly and stood up, holding Lil' Bulb in his hands. "Hi, Gloria. Now isn't the time to speak of plans to take Duckburg back from Glomgold, you should really get some sleep after today."</p><p>"Well I would if Launchpad wasn't sleeping in my spot!" Gloria pointed over to her little area of the lab. "Speaking of Launchpad you'll never guess what that idiot just said!"</p><p>"Trust me, I won't be surprised."</p><p>Gloria started laughing just from the absurdity of it. "He asked me out on a date and asked if we could make out!"</p><p>Gyro almost dropped Lil' Bulb. "Excuse ME?!" Lil' Bulb started shaking its fist at Launchpad who didn't take notice for clear reasons. "Why did we allow him to come along with us to the lab again?"</p><p>She shrugged. "I guess because he flew us home? But anyways I gotta go wake Launchpad up now so I can go on my date!" Obviously she was joking, c'mon people, but she had to bother Gyro somehow!</p><p>"Har har." Gyro scoffed before placing down Lil' Bulb so it could join it's family. "I'll find you another place to sleep. I think I have a blanket in my office?" He rubbed his chin. "Anyway, off topic. Once we come up with a plan on what to do next tomorrow, I'm kicking them all out if they aren't needed. I swear." He gestured Gloria to follow him into his office in the back.</p><p>"Well Mark is useless as per usual but Ellie could definitely help us out! But I think they come as like a package deal now sooo..."</p><p>"Fine. Then we're kicking out Launchpad." They entered his office area and he indeed had blankets for all nighters he had pulled as well. Sadly there weren't pillows. He took one down and handed it to Gloria. "Here you go. You can just sleep in here if you want."</p><p>"Thanks, Gyro!" She laid out the blanket on the floor and immediately passed the fuck out. That bitch was tired.</p><p>Gyro gave her a kiss on the forehead before leaving his office to keep an eye on the others. He needed to wait until they all went to bed or shut down when referring to the robots in the room. If they didn't sleep then he wasn't because his equipment was more important.</p><p>Ellie was currently sitting on the floor helping Boyd get his dents out with whatever robot strength she still had as she told him bedtime stories. As it was mentioned before, he did still have normal organic needs and needed to sleep (aka shutdown) soon. They sat a bit away from Mark since Ellie was lowkey pissed at him. Not enough to start a fight, she just wasn't expecting him to be so bad at having a family. That should've been obvious to begin with but she had pushed that thought aside.</p><p>Mark found a nearby outlet and sat on the floor charging his phone while scrolling through all the memes he missed out on while he was away. He probably should be snooping through all of Gyro's notes and shit but whatever. It should also be mentioned that he was blaring his "Best of Dubstep 2012 Remix" playlist.</p><p>Gyro walked over to Mark, tapping his foot impatiently. "You should turn that untasteful music off if you want to stay here for the night."</p><p>Mark was bobbing his head to the music, ignoring Gyro.</p><p>"TURN IT OFF!" Gyro just straight up kicked Mark in the shin.</p><p>"OWWWIEEEEE! ELLIE! HE KICKED ME!" He figured that Ellie was the one he should tattle tale to.</p><p>She was too busy finishing her bedtime story to Boyd and had blocked them out at that point so she didn't take notice of his cries.</p><p>"ELLLLLLLLLLLLLLIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Mark whined trying to get her attention! He started to lay on the floor for more dramatic attention.</p><p>Ellie sighed. "Hold on a moment, Boyd." She turned around. "I'm a bit busy tending to our son, Mark."</p><p>"Ha! You're in trouble." Gyro laughed at his expense.</p><p>Mark huffed "ELLIE! GYRO IS PISSING ME OFF! GET OVER HERE AND KICK HIS SCRAWNY ASS!"</p><p>She continued to ignore him and turned to Boyd whose head was on her lap. "Goodnight, Boyd." She ruffled his hair before giving him a kiss on the forehead. "I'm sorry there is so much screaming, but I hope you can still fall asleep."</p><p>"It's okay. I can still try to fall asleep." He said while he snuggled on her lap before shutting down.</p><p>She smiled before continuing to run her hands through his hair.</p><p>"Damn, why is she ignoring me?" Mark said to himself. He went to the search engine on his phone to look up why she might be mad at him.</p><p>"Wow, you're even dumber than I thought." Gyro placed his hands on his hips.</p><p>"What the hell are you talking about, G-nerd?"</p><p>Gyro sighed. He couldn't believe that he had to spell all of this out to him. "You and Ellie are raising a child together and all you've been doing is complaining and whining about nothing! She's the one who's been putting in all the work with the child you made!" (A/N: This was before the Astro-Boyd episode y'all so sorry if this is dated information. You'll get the Gyro and Boyd moments you rightfully deserve in upcoming chapters.)</p><p>Mark looked up from his phone. He hadn't found anything on his Google search yet. "...So?"</p><p>Gyro didn't even care if Mark messed with his equipment anymore. There were security cameras. "Goodnight, Mark. Have fun with whatever you have going on." He remarked in his snobby Gyro way before going into his office.</p><p>Mark watched him leave before finally getting up, leaving his phone on the floor to charge. He walked behind Ellie and tapped her shoulder. "Hey."</p><p>Since she still had Boyd resting on her lap she couldn't turn around all the way, but Ellie looked up at him as best as she could. "Hello."</p><p>"So like, um, are you mad at me or something? What gives?" He sat criss cross applesauce next to her.</p><p>Her eyes drifted away from him and back to Boyd. "Not really, I suppose. I just came to an understanding of why you didn't bother to get Boyd back before." She looked back at him. "You really did not want a kid, did you?" Ellie didn't want to start an argument so she sighed before changing the subject. "You should go take a shower. You're still covered in excrement."</p><p>"Yeah yeah I'll shower later... Look, I like Boyd! He's a really cool little dude, I just have trouble talking and interacting with kids. I can admit that!"</p><p>"I don't know if I believe you..." She started. "Everytime I think you're getting better you just go back to the old Mark. The one I used to fight with all the time."</p><p>Mark frowned. "Aw man... I hate it when you're mad at me! Okay, just tell me what to do and I'll do it, m'kay? It's chill!"</p><p>"That is the thing. I should not have to tell you what to do."</p><p>Mark rested his head on her shoulder and whined "But that's so complicateeeeedddddd!"</p><p>"How is that so complicated? I do not understand."</p><p>He whined again before laying on his back on the floor. God poor Ellie had to raise two kids by herself. "It just iiiiiiisssss!" He stared at the ceiling for a few moments before realizing that he was in a room surrounded by all kinds of Gyro's personal shit! "Hey! I have an idea to make you un-mad at me!"</p><p>"Pardon?" She looked around the room, getting the wrong idea. "Mark, not now. Boyd is sleeping."</p><p>Mark was too dumb to know what page Ellie was on. He got off the floor and started rummaging through all of Gyro's stuff. "I can fix your forehead now! Who cares if Boyd's asleep!</p><p>"Oh. I apologize. I thought you were referring to something else." She said. "But yes, that would be nice. Thank you."</p><p>Mark grabbed a handful of tools and shit before sitting back down next to Ellie. He brushed Ellie's hair aside as he started repairs. Did he have any idea as to what he was doing? God he hoped so.</p><p>"I'm sorry for pressuring you into having a kid, Mark." She whispered. "I just wanted you to start being a dad but I can't just push that on you."</p><p>Mark sighed. "No you're right. I haven't been that great of a dad and Boyd is super cool so I promise I'm going to do better!"</p><p>Ellie smiled. "You mean it?"</p><p>"Totes!"</p><p>She didn't quite believe him but she smiled anyway. "Thank you."</p><p>The two continued a quiet chat as Boyd continued to sleep. Mark had finished the repairs for the most part and Ellie started to look like she hadn't just been beat the shit out of again. It was about 90% done, Mark just needed to finish the final touches. He did something when Ellie's eyes went blank for a second before she whipped her head to look at him, horrified.</p><p>"Who the fuck are you?!" She slapped his hand away, Boyd falling off her lap. But luckily he hadn't woken up, he was too deep in sleep (or shutdown?).</p><p>"Yoooooo what?!" Mark's eyes widened. He knew he fucked up somehow in the repairs because Ellie would never say "fuck"! Especially in front of Boyd!</p><p>She stood up, dusting herself off. "Where the hell am I? Did you kidnap me?! Worm!"</p><p>"Ohhhhh no no no no no! Go back to your reset settings, Ellie! Reset!"</p><p>She eyed him up and down, disgusted. "Reset? What do you mean "reset"? Reset my ASS!"</p><p>"Oh Goddamn it! This is all Gyro's fault!" Mark crossed his arms. "Ellie, idk what happened but you need to reset and go back to your old settings. There's a chance you could just do it yourself."</p><p>"Why the hell do you keep saying that, parrot bitch?"</p><p>"Oh wow ummmm #rude!"</p><p>She held a hand out. "Don't say "hashtag" in front of words. You have no idea how cringey that is. What are you? 10?" She scoffed before turning around to search for an exit. "Anyway, I don't know what's happening so I'm peacing the fuck out. Bye."</p><p>"Wh- hey wait you can't go anywhere! What about Boyd!?"</p><p>"Who's Boyd? How do you even know me?!"</p><p>"Okay okay I'll explain everything later but I'm baby and I need my rest! Can you just like, chill?"</p><p>"Whatever." She looked around the lab. "Do you have a phone I can use? I want to read smut. Ironically. Yep. For humor purposes only."</p><p>Mark cringed before walking over to his phone and unplugging it from the outlet. "Here. There's a folder of smut in my notes. Go nuts." Mark crawled in the corner and went to bed, trying to escape from the fuck up.</p>
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<a name="section0019"><h2>19. Ellie Gains Her Marblez</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Ellie was laying on the lab floor, sprawled out, as she continued to read smut from the weird parrot guy's folder. The screen was glued to her face, almost touching her beak. Apparently he was into some really kinky stuff. What a weirdo.</p><p>"Good morning…?"</p><p>Speak of the devil. Ellie looked up at "Mark" (she figured that was his name according to his Wattpad username and self-written/self-insert smut) and then back at the phone to look at the time. It was 6:30 AM. Great...</p><p>"What do you want, parrot bitch?" She scowled. "Because if you want the phone back, that ain't happening."</p><p>"Did you not power down like, at all?!"</p><p>"No? Why would I when I have this shit to read!" She held up the phone to Mark. "The shit you write is TWISTED! I'm into it, haha!"</p><p>Mark blushed before snatching his phone back "Hey! You weren't supposed to read that!"</p><p>"What?! You were the one who showed me the goddamn folder!" She would've stood up to continue messing with him but she was too lazy to do that. "Give me the phone back, I wasn't finished!"</p><p>"No way!" Mark was looking over the part of the fanfiction Ellie was reading and boy was he glad that he snatched it back when he did because she was about to read some really fucked up kink shit next chapter! He blushed harder. "Go check on Boyd and see if he's awake or something!"</p><p>"Stop yelling at me! And I told you I don't know who the hell that is or who the hell you are!" Ellie paused for a second. "No, wait, I know your name is Mark after reading some of that." She pointed to his phone again.</p><p>He sighed before putting his phone in his back pocket. "Boyd is our kid! Ugh fine, if you won't check on him then I will!"</p><p>Ellie ignored him and just continued laying on the floor. She flipped him off when he wasn't looking.</p><p>Mark crouched down next to where Boyd was still sleeping and gently nudged him awake "Yo little dude! Wake up!"</p><p>Boyd immediately powered back on after hearing his father's voice. He lit up immediately when he looked at him. "Good morning, dad!" He sat up, giving him a hug.</p><p>He hugged his son back "Hey, sport! So uh listen, your mom is acting really wack at the moment. Just roll with it, cool?"</p><p>"What do you mean?"</p><p>He sighed again "Okay come with me, I'll show you." He took Boyd's wittle hand and took him over to see Ellie who was still vibin on the floor. "Heyyyyyyyyy againnnnn! Look! Boyd's here! Say hi, Boyd!"</p><p>"Hi mom! I hope you're doing okay!" He waved with his other hand.</p><p>"Ummmm, I don't know what to say to that." She finally propped herself up. "Hold up. You're telling me," Ellie was pointing to herself when looking at Mark before gesturing to the three of them. "That we're, like, a family or something?"</p><p>"Yes! That's what I've been trying to tell you!"</p><p>She blanked for a second, staring at him, then Boyd, then him again. And then she lost it. "HAHAHAHAHA! No FUCKING way, I would never fall in love with a self absorbed asshole like you."</p><p>She thought for a second, before shrugging."I mean… I guess you'd be kinda hot as a girl but whatever."</p><p>Mark gasped as soon as she started speaking and covered Boyd's head to shield him from the string of swear words. "Ellie! Watch your language in front of Boyd, like, GODDAMN!" He tried to not take a whole lot of offense to what she said because he knew that she wasn't acting right but damn.</p><p>"Hey, I hate kids so the faster he grows up the better. Swear words are step 1." She held up a finger, the middle one, before sprawling out on the floor again. "Are you gonna explain what's going on or what?"</p><p>Boyd giggled to himself "Mom is acting really funny! Is she going to stay like this, dad?"</p><p>"God I hope not…"</p><p>"WOWWWWWW! I see how it is, parrot bitch."</p><p>"Stop calling me that! My name is Mark!" He gestured to himself.</p><p>She rolled her eyes. "Whatever, parrot bitch. Now explain the situation because I'm tired of listening to you talk."</p><p>"Okay okay so you're a robot so yeah that's pretty cool and to make a long story short you damaged your head and I, being the coolest and most handsome person in this building, took it upon myself to fix you! However, I thiiiiiiiiink I messed up somewhere in the process and now your personality and memories are… well... Shit."</p><p>"I'm a robot? WACK! That's rad as hell." She threw her arms in the air to do a mini cheer for her and herself alone. "But, man, I'm glad my memories were erased because I don't want to remember fucking you, if we're "lovers" or whatever. Wait, can you even fuck a robot?" Before he could answer that, Ellie continued. "Anyway, I don't want to change back cuz fuck you."</p><p>"Well sorry but you're not thinking straight so you really don't get a say in the matter." He pulled out his phone again and closed out all of the fanfictions she was reading.</p><p>"Uh, yeah I fucking do, parrot bitch. Don't boss me around like that."</p><p>"Ugh! Whatever I'm not going to fight with you when you're like… that."</p><p>The door to Gyro's office opened and out stepped a very sleepy looking Gloria and, of course, Gyro.</p><p>"Do you want a cup of coffee or something?" Gyro offered to Gloria who was wiping the crust from her eyes.</p><p>"Yes please!" She smiled at him while she walked over to see the Mark Beaks gang who were all just sitting in the middle of the floor for some reason. "Hey bitches, oh and small child..." She sat on the floor with them.</p><p>Mark rubbed his eyes. "Gloria, we kind of have a thing going on right now and you probably shouldn't get involved for your own sanity."</p><p>"Why, what's going on?" She looked over to Ellie who always had the answer.</p><p>Ellie crossed her arms and groaned. "He won't get off my dick, that's what!"</p><p>Gloria laughed wayyyy too loud "DUDE, WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?!"</p><p>"This asshole won't leave me alone!" An accusing Ellie finger was pointed at Mark. "He keeps saying he needs to change me back but what he needs to do is BACK the fuck up!"</p><p>"Wait wait-" She pointed to Mark "So you, Ellie, do NOT like this man right here?!"</p><p>"Hell no. He implied we were lovers who fucked or something and then had that thing." She pointed to Boyd. "Fucking EW!" She stopped. "No offense, kid. You aight."</p><p>Boyd frowned but then gave her a smile once she ended with the "you aight". Gloria looked over at Mark again "So did she lose her memories or something? What happened?"</p><p>"I was trying to fix her face and then THIS happened! And now all she wants to do is swear and read explicit fanfiction!" He leaned against the lab wall. "This is all Gyro's fault. The tools he uses are STUPID!"</p><p>Gloria laughed again "Nah I think you fucked this up, but you know what? I like new Ellie!" She looked at Ellie again "Bitch, you pretty cool now!"</p><p>Ellie nodded, giving her a high five. "THANK YOU!" Ellie stood up. "Can I leave now cuz this place sucks. I'm bored."</p><p>"Oh facts!" Gloria got up too. "We should leave but I don't think we can. We are kind of wanted criminals on the run."</p><p>Ellie laughed. "What? Did I rob a bank with this twink?" She pointed a thumb at Mark. Mark made a face at her.</p><p>Gloria laughed too "Nahhh, there's basically this evil dictator dude who is also your uncle and he wants us dead. Fun stuff."</p><p>"I see, I see. I'm picking up what you're laying down."</p><p>"Ayyyyyyyy!" Gloria gave her another high five.</p><p>Ellie turned back to Mark. "Buuuuuuuuuttttt, I dunno, parrot bitch. I think experiencing a dictatorship with the threat of death sounds pretty fun so how about you let me do what I want to fucking do before you change me back. Deal?"</p><p>"What?! Are you out of your mind?! You can't go out there!"</p><p>Gloria chimed in "Dude chill I'm obviously coming with her! We'll be fineeeeee!"</p><p>"That's it!" Mark stormed over to his mortal enemy, Gyro. "Gyro! I need to speak to you as sad as that is!"</p><p>Gloria watched him leave, crossing her arms. "Man, that bitch is gonna tell on me." She said to Ellie.</p><p>Gyro turned around with two cups of black coffee in hand. "What, Beaks? I'm not in the mood to deal with your bullshit at 7 a.m."</p><p>He groaned "I don't want to explain what happened for a THIRD time today so just come and look at Ellie! She's acting like a huge bitch!"</p><p>"...you messed with my tools, didn't you?"</p><p>"... no?"</p><p>"UGH!" Gyro slammed the mugs of coffee on the desk and rubbed his forehead. "I KNEW I shouldn't have gone to bed so early! I KNEW I should've kept an eye on you, but what did I do? I didn't, like an imbecile!"</p><p>"Yeah okay whatever no can you PLEASE come and fix this?! She's really annoying and she's acting like Gloria, so even bitchier but now with a lot more "fuck you's""</p><p>Gyro ignored Mark's insult to his girlfriend. "You expect me to be able to fix her? All the robots I make are evil!" He turned to Lil' Bulb. "Except you."</p><p>Mark thought for a moment. "Ellie and Gloria are planning on leaving the lab by the way. They are literally two in the same! They're chaotic and mean!"</p><p>"WHAT?!" Gyro pushed Mark aside and stormed over to the two of them, specifically Gloria. "Gloria, do not tell me you are actually considering going out there!"</p><p>Gloria muttered to Ellie. "See? I told you that motherfucker snitched..." She turned her attention to Gyro "Ummmm yeah? I mean, we are going together and plus she's a robot so she can just kick someone's ass if we get into trouble!"</p><p>"I only kick ass with words." Ellie added. "Not violence, but whatevs."</p><p>"Ellie not now…" Gloria elbowed her.</p><p>"Oh. My bad. Yeah I'll totally slice a bitch."</p><p>Gloria smiled "See? What did I tell ya? This bitch means business! Besides, Duckburg is kind of a shithole anyways so there isn't much to see. We'll be back in a few hours TOPS!"</p><p>"You two don't even have your mandatory uniforms!"</p><p>"You mean the ugly scottish outfits over there?" Ellie pointed to the extra uniforms in the corner Gyro made for himself for plot reasons. "We can just wear those! I always wished I was scottish. Those accents are dank as hell but nooooo, I was born- or made? An uncultured SWINE!"</p><p>Gyro blocked the clothes from their view with his body "Nope! You're not leaving! It's too dangerous!"</p><p>Being scrawny, Gyro couldn't block the array of outfits on the large shelf so Ellie just grabbed two. "Dangerous is my middle name. I want to experience a dictatorship first hand!"</p><p>"NO YOU WILL NOT!"</p><p>"TOO LATE!" Ellie grabbed Gloria's hand and ran out with her.</p><p>"OH GODDAMNIT!" Gyro turned to Mark and shoved him. "This is your fault so you follow them and keep them safe while I try to figure something out! I cannot have such a bad influence to be around Gloria! She's a big enough hazard to herself!"</p><p>"Ughhhhhhhh! This is such bullshit!" Mark stomped over to Boyd and picked him up along with two spare uniforms that were conveniently both of their sizes (because plot) and left to go catch up with the two bastards.</p><p>_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>Ellie and Gloria stood outside the money bin, looking at the burning, smog covered city that looked like it was taken over by anarchy rather than a dictatorship. They both had their uniforms on now, also for plot purposes.</p><p>"Wowwww." Ellie made fake binoculars with her hands. "Ain't that a site. Do you think we'll see people eating eachother?"</p><p>"Dude that would be sooooo cool! Your robot eyes can probably take pictures or something so be sure to capture that shit."</p><p>"I'm too lazy to figure that out."</p><p>"HEY WAIT UP!" Mark screamed behind them, He was still carrying Boyd on his side. Both were now wearing their uniforms too. "If you're going outside then I'm coming along too to make sure you two don't die or whatever."</p><p>"I can't die because I'm a robot so that sounds like a Gloria problem." Ellie nudged Gloria, obviously not aware that herself was decapitated before.</p><p>"Ohhhh yeah true I could die out here but whatever. Let's go steal shit from an abandoned Target!"</p><p>"OOOOOH! Do you think we'll see a giant statue of my uncle who happens to be a dictator which is rad by the way." The two started walking, Mark putting Boyd down as they followed behind. "Wait. Do you think I could say hi to him and get his autograph. He wants me dead or something but family comes first, right?"</p><p>"Ahhh yeah no sorry, bitch. He really wants you dead."</p><p>"I can die? Well that sucks." She turned to look back at Mark. "But I'd rather die than have a family with that dude."</p><p>Gloria laughed "Bruhhhhhhh!" I've said it before and I'll say it again. Gloria fucking loves to laugh at Mark's pain!</p><p>Mark grimaced, knowing Gloria was having a fucking bawl. "I'm right here! Can you please stop talking shit about me!" He stomped a foot. Boyd did so as well to mimic him. "And Ellie, your other self loved me whether you like it or not."</p><p>"I wouldn't mind that if you were a hot girl but you're not so…"</p><p>They finally reached the worn down Target. The letter "R" was the last remaining letter to flash light but it was doing a pretty bad job at it. They all stepped through a broken window because no one uses the front door anymore.</p><p>Mark looked down at Boyd "Okay Boyd, what mommy and Gloria are doing is called stealing and trespassing and both are very very wrong!"</p><p>"Then why is mommy doing it?"</p><p>"Because she's not acting like her normal self. Don't worry, I will figure something out!"</p><p>"Can you like, shut the fuck up please? We are trying to steal shit!" Gloria said while stuffing chocolate bars into her plaid pants pockets (because remember, these are Gyro's uniforms.)</p><p>Ellie looked at the chocolate her new BFF was stealing. "Aw man, I probably can't eat, can I?"</p><p>"No I've never seen you eat, bro, I'm sorry. But hey, there's a brick over there! Go smash it at something!"</p><p>"Wait…" She turned around so she was speaking to everyone in the room. "Do you think they have Fifty Shades of Grey?" She turned to Gloria. "Mark won't let me read his smut anymore."</p><p>"His WHAT?!" Gloria looked over at Mark with her devilish bastard-child grin.</p><p>His face went as white as an unused diaper. "NOTHING!"</p><p>"Oh you KNOW I'm never going to let this go!" She turned her attention back to Ellie "Check the book asile, bitch, it's over there! I'll be there in a minute. I still want to steal more candy."</p><p>She nodded before yeeting across the abandoned store.</p><p>Mark turned to Gloria. "Gloria, can you please stop influencing her? The situation is bad enough. What if God Bots hear us or something? It's Sunday so they're probably looking for citizens who aren't attending Glomgold's church ceremonies or the executions or whatever the fuck else he has going on."</p><p>Boyd started to hug Mark's leg. "Um, can we go soon? This place is starting to scare me…"</p><p>Gloria sighed. "Fine, we can leave soon but I'm still not done stealing!" She started to hand Boyd some of her candy because her pockets couldn't handle any more.</p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>Gyro was frantically flipping through all his robotics textbooks, trying to figure something, anything, out! Ellie was putting Gloria in danger. Sadly there wasn't much electricity due to the dictator thing going on so books were the only thing he could rely on.</p><p>He could feel Launchpad, who had finally woken up, breathing down his neck.</p><p>"What do you want, Launchpad? I'm busy."</p><p>"Hey Dr. G! I got a question!" He put his town pointer fingers together because he was shy about asking said question. UmU</p><p>"Spit it out. Like I said, I'm busy."</p><p>Launchpad rubbed the back of his head and started to swing back and forth on his feet. "Well, there's this girl I like but she already has a boyfriend. What should I do?"</p><p>Gyro adjusted his cracked glasses and turned around to look at Launchpad face to face. "Who is this girl?" Gyro already knew but he wanted Launchpad to spit it out already so he could start screaming at him.</p><p>"Oh ummm okay let's call her ummm Not Gloria?"</p><p>"Uh huh… go on."</p><p>"So Not Gloria told me she's dating, um, Not Gyro. And I want her to break up with Not Gyro so she can make out with me- I mean, Not Launchpad. But Not Launchpad knows that's not a good thing to do but wants to do it anyway. What should I- I mean, Not Launchpad do to get Not Gloria?"</p><p>"Launchpad, stay out of Gloria and I's relationship! You hear me? Go date a walnut or something. It's the same size as your brain."</p><p>Launchpad put his hands up "Oh yeah totally! I wasn't trying to get into your relationship or anything! I'm talking about Not Gloria! Sooooo NOW can you help me?"</p><p>"Well, NOT Gloria told me she doesn't like you and will never leave Not Gyro so there isn't anything you can do. Go cry about it and leave me alone."</p><p>"But-"</p><p>The lab doors opened and in walked a very tired looking Mark with a scared Boyd, Gloria holding a bunch of candy bars and Ellie holding a lot of explicit content.</p><p>"Heyyyyyyyyyy! We're baaaaaack!" Gloria sang. She dropped all of her candy on the table and started sorting through it like the child she was. Ellie didn't talk to anyone and just sat in the corner to start reading. She also picked up a highlighter so she can highlight all the best parts of the books.</p><p>Mark stormed over to Gyro and ignored Launchpad who had begun to silently cry. "Please tell me you worked something out! We could've died out there and the fact I'm being the responsible one is nuts!"</p><p>"No! I haven't worked anything out!" Gyro slammed the current textbook he was reading closed. "I say we just shut her down and fix her when the dictatorship is over. We cannot have a distraction like her wandering around and eventually getting us caught!"</p><p>"I'm right here, damn." Ellie muttered while beginning to highlight. "I don't see the issue, you know? I'm not that bad. Plus we didn't get caught!"</p><p>Gloria backed her up "Yeah exactly! We had so much fun please don't restart her! She was so boring before… no offense."</p><p>Gyro raised a brow. "I thought you two were friends?"</p><p>"We are but now we are crazy bitch friends!"</p><p>"Soon enough you won't be! That's it, I'm getting the tools out to shut her down!"</p><p>Ellie stood up and slammed her book on the ground, mostly pissed that she couldn't continue reading the explicit parts of the book. "Shut me down against my will? Change me back against my will? You all are trying to control me even though I'm sentient! I don't want to go back to being a boring bitch who's dating an asshole who probably isn't even good in bed! I can tell just by looking at him!"</p><p>Mark blushed again out of embarrassment and anger "I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS! GYRO YOU BETTER FIX HER NOW!"</p><p>"No, Gyro don't!" Gloria pleaded</p><p>Gyro started pulling at his hair. "I told you, I can't fix her! All I can do is shut her down until we get the electricity back so I can do more research!"</p><p>"Fine whatever shut her down then I don't care just MAKE HER STOP UGH!"</p><p>"ARE YOU SERIOUS! I THOUGHT YOU LOVED ME, ASSHOLE!" Ellie kicked one of the books across the room, along with some sharpies.</p><p>"I LOVE OLD YOU! NOT THIS WEIRD CHAOTIC VERSION OF YOU!"</p><p>"FINE, WHATEVER!" This whole situation was unbelievable. Ellie was getting peeved to the point it was out of hand. "YOU CAN HATE ME, FINE! BUT YOU CAN'T JUST SHUT ME DOWN! THAT'S THE SAME AS KILLING ME! I TOLD YOU I DON'T WANT TO CHANGE BACK! MY OLD LIFE PROBABLY SUCKED! I DON'T HAVE TO REMEMBER TO KNOW!"</p><p>Boyd had started crying along with Launchpad as all of this was going down. He just wanted his mom back. And Launchpad just wanted his girl.</p><p>Mark threw one of Gyro's textbooks at her and missed by a longshot. "YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT YOU WANT BECAUSE YOU'RE WIRING IS ALL MESSED UP SO JUST SHUT UP!"</p><p>Gyro had had enough and picked up another one of his textbooks. Before anyone could process what he was doing he ran over and slammed Ellie's head against the wall with it, hoping that would be enough to shut her down. He didn't want to be forced to hold her down and listen to her nonsense.</p><p>Ellie fell to the ground immediately.</p><p>Gloria started screaming at Gyro before coming to Ellie's aid, despite her being unconscious. "What the HELL, Gyro?!" She was going to share her candy stash with her boyfriend but not anymore.</p><p>"What else was I supposed to do? You know that wasn't Ellie, you just wanted that to be her! That's kind of offensive to the real her, don't you think?"</p><p>Gloria sighed and left Gyro to go stress eat all of her chocolate. He had a point and she was friends with old Ellie but she couldn't help that new Ellie was just a cooler bitch.</p><p>Mark ran over, leaving Boyd behind with Launchpad to continue crying since he literally just witnessed his mother get murdered. "Oh my god! Is she like DEAD dead!?"</p><p>"What?! No! She's merely in a state of-"</p><p>Ellie, still on the floor, opened her eyes. "What is going on?"</p><p>Gloria turned around and ran back to Ellie with chocolate in her hands. "Bitch! You're back!"</p><p>She sat up, looking around before tilting her head at Gloria. "I was under the impression "bitch" meant female dog and I am not a female dog so I believe you mixed up your speech. I can assist you with your vocabulary if needed."</p><p>Gloria sighed. She was now upset that her chaotic friend was gone but she still liked normal Ellie just the same. "Good to have you back, Ellie." She went back to her chocolate again.</p><p>Ellie stood up, wiping off her plaid pants. She didn't remember putting them on but didn't question it. "I was not aware I was gone."</p><p>Mark hugged her "It's a long story but whatevs!" He looked over at Boyd, signaling him to come over. Boyd stopped crying and jumped in the hug pile.</p><p>"Is mommy back now?!"</p><p>"She sure is, sport!"</p><p>"So she's finally done calling people "fuckers" and saying you're bad in bed?"</p><p>Ellie shoved Mark away and looked down at Boyd who was still hugging her. "WHAT did you just say?!"</p><p>"T-that you said dad was bad in bed…? I guess he has trouble sleeping?"</p><p>Ellie gasped, looking back up at Mark. "Mark, I am so sorry. I admit that you aren't the best and you should be aware, but stating it as bluntly as I did was very rude of me. And inappropriate in front of Boyd."</p><p>Mark waved his hands awkwardly "Yeah yeah it's fine you weren't in a right state of mind. You were acting like Gloria of all people so ew. Let's just forget it, okay? OKAY BOYD?!"</p><p>"Okay, dad…"</p><p>Meanwhile, Gyro walked over to Gloria who was shoving chocolate into her mouth. "Are you okay there? I'm sorry I smashed Ellie's head in and then proceeded to "roast" you, as you would say."</p><p>"Man, I'm gonna miss that bitch… Who am I going to steal chocolate with now?!" She sighed before handing Gyro some chocolate "Here. You kind of don't deserve any but whatever."</p><p>He obliged, taking the candy from her. "Thanks."</p>
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<a name="section0020"><h2>20. Steelbeak's Petty Revenge</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Steelbeak shoved open the doors to Godgold's office. "I'm back, just as you requested, Supreme Leader."</p><p>Glomgold looked up from his MLP themed phone. "WOT?! Why are you reporting to meh when you can be hunting down the outlaws?!" He looked back down to read the most recent articles praising him.</p><p>"Well, sir," Steelbeak's tone was sour and sarcastic, but not enough for Glomgold to notice. "I was hoping you had an idea of where I could begin my search, considering you're the dictator and know everything."</p><p>"UGHHHHHH I DUNNOOOO WHERE THEY AREEEEE! THAT'S YOUR JOB!"</p><p>"Hm. Understood." He smirked, walking closer to Glomgold's desk. "I have a question for you."</p><p>"WOT?!"</p><p>"You plan on firing me after I complete my mission, correct?"</p><p>Glomgold threw his head back and groaned. "YEAHHHH! WHY?!"</p><p>Steelbeak towered over him, attempting to intimidate the man with one brain cell. "What do you plan on doing to me afterward? Execute me? Imprison me? Let me free and pray to you along with the rest of the public?"</p><p>"EHHHH I DUNNO! I HAVEN'T THOUGHT IT THROUGH SO SHUT UP!"</p><p>"Yes, sir." As Steelbeak exited the room, he turned to side eye Glomgold before the door closed. "Be careful what choice you make."</p><p>_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>Gyro paced back and forth in the lab, Launchpad and everyone else sitting around him. "We wasted all of yesterday dealing with you, Ellie." He eyed her. "So we had no time to start planning our next course of action. I'm starting to believe my lab will be a safe place of hiding for only a limited amount of time."</p><p>Launchpad raised his hand.</p><p>"What Launchpad?"</p><p>"Well, we could go crash at the McDuck manor!" He meant crash literally but no one assumed that, but honestly they should have. "I'm sure they'll take us in!"</p><p>Gyro stopped, placing his sassy hands on his mushroom top. "The McDuck manor is the most dangerous place we could be right now. Do you not remember me telling you what happened to Scrooge?"</p><p>"Erm… what happened to Scrooge?"</p><p>Picking up his pacing again, Gyro ran a hand down his face. "Nevermind. Does anyone other than Launchpad have an idea? I'm at a loss which is saying a lot."</p><p>Ellie raised her hand.</p><p>"What?" He bit.</p><p>"When my head was being smashed in by Steelbeak, Glomgold was the one who saved me. I know he wants us dead but I think there's still good in him after what he did. If I just had a chance to talk to him again I could attempt to convince him to let us live. I doubt he would be willing to give up his throne, but our lives are worth the confrontation."</p><p>"That idea is even more stupid than Launchpad's. Next!"</p><p>"Ooh!" Gloria shot her hand up. "What if, and okay hear me out, we all dress up as clowns and pretend that we are a traveling circus! Then we can-"</p><p>"Gloria, that is very OOC, even for you." Ellie stated.</p><p>Gyro nodded. "Thank you, Ellie." Reluctantly, he turned to Mark and groaned. "I can't believe I'm asking this, but do you have any ideas, Beaks?"</p><p>He shrugged while scrolling through twitter. "Why can't we just stay here again?"</p><p>"BECAUSE THEY'LL FIND US EVENTUALLY! NO ONE LISTENS TO ME!"</p><p>Lastly, Boyd raised his hand. Even if he was a child, he was most likely to come up with a good plan which is very sad but true.</p><p>Though confused, Gyro gestured for him to start speaking.</p><p>"Well I'm a robot and mommy's a robot so maybe we could make friends with the other robots and convince them to turn on the dictator!"</p><p>"That's… actually not a bad idea." Gyro stopped his pacing before shaking his head. "But no. The God Bot's programming cannot be overridden, not even with "friendship", if you will. Friendship is not magic."</p><p>"Well, we're screwed." Mark said while taking a selfie. "I guess I'll just play Mario Kart until we all get killed."</p><p>"No." Gyro interrupted. "We will not just be a bunch of sitting ducks. Everyone take 15 and try to think of something else, then we will regroup." Knowing none of them would be able to come up with a good idea, Gyro went to his desk to try to think of something himself within the next 15 minutes, even if it was just a rough idea. It just had to be better than what they were putting on the table.</p><p>Gloria sat down with both Mark and Ellie, along with Boyd of course. She knew none of them were going to come up with an idea so she was just going to hang out until Gyro came up with something. It was obvious that he only relied on himself at this point.</p><p>"Gloria?" Ellie asked.</p><p>"Yo." Gloria was munching on her last chocolate bar. She made a mental note to go steal some more later if she could sneak away.</p><p>"Would you like any of these pronographic books? I am not sure where they came from and they should not be around Boyd."</p><p>"Ummmm no thank you, Ellie. But you know who would want them? Both Mark and Gyro! Aw man they can't get enough of the stuff! Go throw some of those books their way, I insist."</p><p>Mark looked up from his phone since he was sitting beside them. "What?"</p><p>Ellie handed him 50 Shades of Grey along with some magazines. "Here you go, Mark. Gloria figured you would like these." She smiled before walking over to bother Gyro.</p><p>"Gee, thanks Gloria." Mark muttered, throwing the books aside.</p><p>Gloria bent over and picked up the book only to hide it in one of Gyro's work dwares.</p><p>There was a light knock at the lab door. Gyro looked over, ignoring Ellie who was showing him her explicit novels.</p><p>"Dr. G, someone's at the door!"</p><p>"SHHHH!" Gyro hushed Launchpad, walking over to the door. He put his ear up against it to listen. There was deep breathing. He put a finger to his beak to silence the others in the room.</p><p>"You gonna open it?" Launchpad chimed.</p><p>"OPEN UP! I KNOW YOU ARE ALL HIDING IN THERE!" A familiar menacing voice echoed through the other side of the door.</p><p>Ellie knew who it was immediately and rushed over to Boyd to shelter him. She looked over at Gyro, pleading for him to come up with an idea to save her kid at the very least.</p><p>Because the electricity was down (except for a single outlet for Mark's phone of course), the main entrance to Gyro's lab was simply a door. No security to help guard them.</p><p>Steelbeak banged louder on the door. "MAKE THIS EASIER AND OPEN UP OR I WILL USE FORCE! LAST WARNING!"</p><p>Mark grabbed Ellie and Boyd's hands to hide underneath a nearby table in the center of the room by Gyro's array of equipment.</p><p>Gyro nodded at Gloria, non-verbally telling her they should do the same. They also hid under another table because Gyro had a lot of those in his handy dandy underwater lab.</p><p>The door shot open, Steelbeak and 5 other God Bots marching in, guns in hand to make the situation even worse. Steelbeak scanned the room, frowning when he didn't see anyone at first. He looked at the God Bots. "Start searching."</p><p>Launchpad was the first one to be spotted and taken due to his very awful hiding spot. He was standing behind a very skinny lamp. Two God Bots handcuffed him, pushing him to the ground in front of Steelbeak.</p><p>Launchpad looked up at him. "Hey there!"</p><p>Smirking, Steelbeak crouched down to his level. "Tell me, are you the only one in here, friend?"</p><p>"Sayyyyyyy, don't I know you from somewhere?" Most of his memory was wiped when "Smart Launchpad" left the chat.</p><p>"Answer the damn question."</p><p>"Oh yeah! I have lots of friends here but I can't tell you where because we are all trying to hide from you!"</p><p>Steelbeak slapped him. "Tell me and no one gets hurt. Got it?"</p><p>"Heyyyyy but I just got hurt!" Launchpad whined. He was too dumb to understand the danger of the situation.</p><p>A gun was held up against his forehead. "Tell me and I won't shoot."</p><p>"Oh ummm okay well I think they are somewhere in this room? I dunno it's too dark in here to really tell."</p><p>Steelbeak punched Launchpad in the face. "You!" He pointed to one God Bot. "Take him to the van." He gestured to all the others. "Alright, let's start searching the room."</p><p>Ellie held Boyd close to her chest. She turned to Mark. "What are we going to do? There's no way he won't hurt Boyd." She whispered.</p><p>Mark looked at Ellie and Boyd. He was too scared to reply in fear that his loud mouth would blow their cover. All he could do was sit and hope that he leaves but c'mon we all know that that isn't gonna happen.</p><p>Two God Bots picked up the table Gyro and Gloria were under, chucking it across the room. They both stared up in horror as guns were pointed at their heads.</p><p>"We found two of them Mr. Steelbeak." One said.</p><p>Steelbeak smirked, walking over. "Well well well, if it ain't part of the squad. Funny seeing you here."</p><p>"God, you again? Ugh, I know you can't take rejection too well but this is ridiculous." Gloria mouthed Steelbeak off.</p><p>"You can't even keep your mouth shut when your life's on the line, can you?" He scoffed while the God Bots handcuffed the two of them. "This goes past mere rejection. I have bigger plans, you all are just in my way." He started to pace around the two of them, making Gyro almost piss himself. He leaned in to whisper in Gloria's ear. "I heard you and the others took down Mickey. You probably think you're such a badass don't you?"</p><p>"Think? I know! If I can help take down an evil dictator I can take down a dumb ass himbo lookin' ass oompa loompa body ass bitch of a CAMP COUNSELOR!"</p><p>He took his gun, knocking the side of her head with it. Gloria fell to the ground, unconscious. Blood was leaking from the side of her head. "Okay, she's the FIRST to go! Along with Dummy who's in the van!"</p><p>"GLORIA!" Gyro screamed. He tried to go to her aid but the God Bot held him back.</p><p>The two God Bots took to the two of them out, Gyro screaming like a baby when they did so.</p><p>Steelbeak looked at the remaining God bots. "Continue the search until we find the rest of 'em."</p><p>At this point Boyd was already in tears. He tried his best to stop from sniffling but it tragically gave away their hiding spot.</p><p>Ellie held him tighter, trying to hide him with her arms as best as she could, but it was to no avail. Her and Mark just had to wait for the worst.</p><p>This time it was Steelbeak who threw the table. He looked down at the three of them and smirked. "Wonderful. I get the robot AND her idiotic boyfriend! Now the only question is, which one do I kill first?!"</p><p>Boyd started crying harder. Steelbeak didn't realize there was a child with them until just now.</p><p>The kid hid his face in Ellie's shirt. "I don't want to die, mom!"</p><p>"MOM?!" He grabbed Boyd by the shirt collar to get a closer look at him, prying him away from Ellie. He looked just like Mark Beaks! That bastard! "I had no idea you two had a kid…how unfortunate he will live long enough to become an orphan."</p><p>Ellie stood up along with a horrified Mark. She was practically sobbing at this point. "Put him down!"</p><p>Steelbeak shot her a look before kicking her down. "God Bots! Get these two out of my sight!"</p><p>"STOP!" Mark screamed, actually acting like a father for once in his life. Impressive.</p><p>The God Bots held Mark and Ellie in place as Steelbeak got right in Mark's face. "You are going to be the last one to die. You are going to watch all of your friends and loved ones burn in agonizing pain. I don't want you to just die, I want you to suffer." He snapped, signaling the God Bots to take them away to the van.</p><p>Ellie was a screaming mess as the two of them were escorted out of the room away from Boyd.</p><p>Boyd looked at Steelbeak, sniffling and shaking like a leaf. "What are you going to do to me?"</p><p>"The worst thing you can come up with, little one."</p><p>___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>Launchpad and his posse sat in a jail cell. Again. It must've been the millionth time in this fanfiction.</p><p>They were all there except for a key person. Boyd.</p><p>Ellie hadn't stopped sobbing the entire time and Mark tried his best to comfort her, but there wasn't much he could do.</p><p>Gloria was now conscious, holding the side of her head that was throbbing.</p><p>"God, you probably have a concussion." Gyro tried to look at the wound as best as he could despite Gloria covering most of it.</p><p>"Wait, who are you?"</p><p>Gyro gasped, covering his beak. "Wait. No no no NO! This cannot be happening!"</p><p>Gloria did her bastard grin again "Nah, I'm just messing with you!"</p><p>"When we're about to die?!"</p><p>"Ow hey, my head still hurts. I don't need the shouting. But anyways, I'm sure we can find a way out of here."</p><p>Ellie, though clinging to Mark, looked at Gloria. "But he has Boyd!"</p><p>"I know, Ellie, and I promise we won't leave without him. All I'm saying is that this is like, my third or fourth time in prison now so this isn't my first rodeo. We can find a way out and get Boyd without getting caught!"</p><p>"If they haven't done anything to him yet!" Mark snapped.</p><p>"Woahhhh, why is everybody mad? Last time I was in prison, it was pretty fun!" Launchpad clapped to himself. "Can't wait for the food!"</p><p>"Yeah until you were shot and killed, dumbass!" Gloria spat. "Listen guys, I know it sucks now but we are the protagonists, we are going to get out of here!"</p><p>"Oh, I don't think so." Steelbeak entered the cell, holding a crying Boyd by one arm. He looked badly beaten, his bowtie and hair askew.</p><p>"Boyd!" Mark screamed.</p><p>Ellie nearly broke just by looking at him and how badly he was beaten, it was almost as bad as what Steelbeak had done to her. He had so many dents and some wires were showing. She looked up at Steelbeak and scowled. "What did you do to him?!"</p><p>"The same thing that I'm going to do to you, robot scum!"</p><p>"Glomgold won't allow that!" She spat back.</p><p>"HA! You think that idiot is going to save you again?! Once I overthrow him he will be just as useless as you all are!"</p><p>He chucked Boyd into the middle of the room; Ellie scrambled to him immediately to check his wounds before looking up at Steelbeak again, holding Boyd in her arms. "What did we do for you to hate us all so much? It can't be just because of that one date."</p><p>"You'll find out soon enough. But I'll admit the date didn't help."</p><p>"Find out what? That you're insane?!" Gyro finally worked up enough courage to yell at him.</p><p>Steelbeak ignored Gyro's question/insult and stared down at Launchpad and Gloria. "I told you that you two are going to be first."</p><p>Launchpad smiled. "Wow! I'm never first!"</p><p>"Make this easier for everyone and step out of the cell peacefully."</p><p>"Okay!" Launchpad got up and walked out like Steelbeak wanted. Gloria didn't move, giving Steelbeak a nasty stare back.</p><p>"Are we going to have another issue like before, Gloria?"</p><p>"I guess so, Asswipe, because there is no way in hell I'm getting up from this cell!"</p><p>He didn't respond, instead he grabbed her by the arm, his nails piercing her skin as more blood left her. "I hope that pain doesn't bother you because it's nothing compared to what's coming next."</p><p>Gloria started kicking and screaming at him to pry herself away but he was 10x stronger than she was so she didn't really stand a chance. Launchpad stood there and watched everything go down from outside the cell, thankful that that wasn't him.</p><p>He grabbed Gloria's pretty little hair and slammed her head into the concrete wall.</p><p>Gyro, Ellie, and Mark all flinched back as Gloria went still. She wasn't dead, she just couldn't process what had just happened and the pain hadn't registered quite yet. Boyd had started screaming and crying again.</p><p>"You got another smart ass comment for me?!"</p><p>Gyro gulped. "Gloria don't…"</p><p>Gloria wiped her head, leaving a blood trail on her arm. She smirked "You punch like a little bitch!"</p><p>Steelbeak snarled, dragging her out by the hair. She fell over, desperately trying to get her ground again but he wouldn't let her. "I'm sure you two will have a lot of fun burning at the stake." He murmured, the cell door being locked behind him by God Bots.</p><p>Gyro started flipping the hell out. He ran up to the cell door, shaking the bars. "Steelbeak! Don't! Let Gloria go!"</p><p>"But not Launchpad!" Mark added.</p><p>Ellie, who was still sitting, looked up at Boyd who had stood up, looking around at the cell. "Are you okay, sweety?" It was the first time she had called him that and it felt right.</p><p>He nodded while wiping his tears away and staring at the floor. "Mom, I want to go home..."</p><p>"I know…" She laid a hand on his cheek. "What did he do to you?"</p><p>"He was being a bully and- and beating me up a lot." He sniffled.</p><p>Mark scooted closer to Boyd and put a hand on his shoulder to get his attention. "Does anything hurt, little dude?" He was beating himself up that he programmed Boyd to feel pain. He wished that he could take it all back. All he wanted was Boyd to be as real as a boy as possible.</p><p>Boyd nodded. "My arm and my head…" He held up his arms to show his parents his boo-boos.</p><p>Ellie looked over at Mark and frowned. "Is there anything you can do about the pain?"</p><p>Mark took a closer look at Boyd's arm. "No, I don't think there's anything I can do without being in my office." He turned back to Boyd. "Do you think you'll be alright for a little while, sport?"</p><p>Boyd's answer was drowned out by Gyro's continuous screaming at the cell door. Yes, he had been screaming the entire time, demanding Steelbeak bring Gloria back even though he was long gone.</p><p>"YO! GYRO! CAN YOU, LIKE, STFU! I CAN'T EVEN HEAR MYSELF THINK!"</p><p>"SHUT UP? YOU WANT ME TO SHUT UP? GLORIA IS ABOUT TO BE BURNED AT THE STAKE!"</p><p>"WELL MY KID IS IN PAIN!"</p><p>"It's not that bad, dad-"</p><p>"PAIN IS NOTHING COMPARED TO BEING BURNED ALIVE, BEAKS!" Gyro started pacing around the room. "We need to get out of here now or Gloria won't survive. We probably have 30 minutes max. And that's if Launchpad goes first."</p><p>"GOD YOU ALL TALK TOO DAMN MUCH! YOU'RE HURTING ME EARSSSS!" Glomgold came marching along and passed their cell, giving all of them nasty looks for being loud.</p><p>"Uncle Glomgold?!" Ellie ran up to the door, leaving Boyd with Mark. "What are you doing here?"</p><p>"STEELBEAK TOLD ME HE CAPTURED YOU ALL SO I CAME TO SEE FOR MYSELF! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!"</p><p>Gyro walked up behind Ellie. "Why do you want all of us dead? What did we do to you that deems us as perfect candidates to be, oh I don't know, BURNED ALIVE?!"</p><p>Ellie nodded. "You saved me from Steelbeak and now you're just going to kill me anyway? I do not understand."</p><p>"I SAVED YOU ON ACCIDENT!" He cockroach crawled closer to the cell door. "I'M A DICTATOR! IT'S MY JOB TO KILL THOSE WHO DEFY ME AND YOU ALL ESCAPED THE CAMP! YOU WOULD'VE BEEN ALIVE IF YOU STAYED!"</p><p>"Not for very long!" Mark spat from behind.</p><p>Ellie knew they had to save Gloria (no one gave a shit about Launchpad at the moment) but she had to make something clear with her past Uncle turned insane dictator. It was pity party time. "Uncle Glomgold, you have to let Mark and I go. We're raising a child." She gestured to Boyd to come forward and he took her hand. "You can't kill us…"</p><p>"EH, I DON'T CARE ABOUT CHILDREN!" That pity party card didn't work well on Glomgold because he's too stupid to really know what a pity party was exactly.</p><p>"Yo, what the fuckkkkkk?" Mark whispered to Gyro, who pushed him aside.</p><p>He was the next to confront Glomgold. "SO WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?! KILL ALL OF US TODAY, INCLUDING A CHILD?!"</p><p>Glomgold scoffed. "TODAY?! NO NO! EXECUTIONS ARE ON SUNDAY NOT MONDAY!"</p><p>"Wait, hold up." Mark held out his hands to stop his yelling. It wouldn't have worked if it wasn't for the fact that Glomgold was already done yelling. "Then why are Launchpad and Gloria getting burned at the stake today?"</p><p>"WOT?!"</p><p>"Uh, yeah? Steelbeak just took them like 10 minutes ago."</p><p>Glomgold screamed and opened up the cell door with the spare key he had in the kilt fanny pack he was sportin'. "THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS! I COULD STRANGLE THAT MAN WITH MY OWN TWO SCOTTISH FISTS!"</p><p>"Why did you let us out?" Boyd interrupted.</p><p>"SO YOU CAN HELP ME BEAT UP AND FIRE STEELBEAK! HE KNOWS EXECUTIONS ARE NOT TODAY! THAT STUPID BASTARD! NOW MOVE!" He motioned for everyone to follow him outside where the executions were taking place.</p><p>___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>Launchpad's hands were tied to a stake, hay and wood below him. He was up on a podium, townsfolk getting a mass announcement about the sudden execution so some people had just arrived.</p><p>"LADIES OF GENTLEMEN OF GLOMBURG!" Steelbeak announced. Soon the town would be Steelburg. "THIS MAN BETRAYED OUR CITY AND OUR GOD! AND FOR THAT HE WILL BURN!"</p><p>Launchpad smiled brightly. "Well! I'm first and now I'm going to be on fire! COOL!"</p><p>The audience cheered as Steelbeak approached the base of the stake, lighter in hand. Yes, the lighter had an anime picture of Glomgold on it. He lit it, lowering to set the hay and wood on fire. And on fire it became.</p><p>Gloria watched in horror from below the stage, held hostage by God bots. Launchpad was annoying as hell and it was cool she wouldn't have to deal with the fact he had a crush on her anymore, but goddamn, she didn't want to watch the dude burn. Especially if she was going to be next. She was going to be forced to watch what she would experience first hand; and no, it didn't look fun.</p><p>Looking down at the flames beginning to rise, Launchpad began laughing. "HAHAHA! It's toasty! Wish I had my s'mores kit!"</p><p>Glomgold stormed up to the outside of the crowd, the latest version of "Glomsquad" behind him. "UGH! IT'S SO CROWDED! WHY DO SO MANY PEOPLE WANT TO WATCH SOMEONE BURN!?"</p><p>Gyro raised a finger in question. "Because you make it mandatory?"</p><p>"Oh yeah. ANYWAY! LET'S ROLE!" Glomgold shoved a child out of the way. "MOVE BITCH!"</p><p>"Uncle Glomgold?" Ellie tapped his shoulder as he continued to push his citizens and toddlers out of the way. He even flipped a stroller of triplets. "I don't think it's the best course of action for me to show Boyd someone burn alive." She looked down at Boyd who was holding her hand. "Can we just wait outside the crowd until you solve the issue at hand and come back to "capture" us again?"</p><p>Glomgold made a noise before taking off his smelly Scottish hat and slammed it on Boyd's head to shield his eyes "THERE! NOW HE CAN'T SEE THE SLOW PROCESS OF FLESH BURNING!"</p><p>Ellie didn't respond to that.</p><p>The smoke had become so thick that Launchpad wasn't visible anymore. All you could hear was heavy coughing and wheezing. And some screams that sounded stupid because it was Launchpad. "H-HELP! I- I DON'T HAVE MY S'MORES!" His famous last words… for real this time.</p><p>Steelbeak sprayed the fire down with a giant hose he got from somewhere cuz screw it. The only thing left was a skeleton of Launchpad McQuack.</p><p>Gloria gasped. "YO! WHAT THE FUCK?!" She tried to break away from the God Bots but it was no use.</p><p>Steelbeak pointed to her, looking at the bots. "BRING HER UP! SHE'S NEXT!"</p><p>They obeyed, shoving Gloria onto the stage, who was in chains. They had let go of her, but stood near to prevent her from running. Steelbeak approached, hands behind his back. He smirked at her before turning to the crowd again. "THIS WOMAN ATTEMPTED TO EXECUTE OUR DEAR LEADER!" He half lied. She hadn't tried yet. It was in her to-do list.</p><p>The crowd gasped and started booing, throwing tomatoes at her as you see in movies. You could buy them at the execution entrance for 2 God dollars.</p><p>Steelbeak held a microphone up to Gloria. "Any last words before we string you up?"</p><p>Gloria cleared her throat before shouting into the microphone "STEELBEAK IS LYING! I DIDN'T DO SHIT! HE ALSO HAS THE RECORD FOR THE WORLD'S SMALLEST DICK! FUCK YOU! BAD BITCHES NEVER DIE!"</p><p>Gyro and the gang were able to see the stage now. He laid a hand over his face. "Why. Why is she this way?"</p><p>Mark scoffed. "Cuz she's stupid. That's why." He took a picture of the tomato covered Gloria on stage.</p><p>Steelbeak gasped and slapped her, she hit the ground and it didn't help any of her current wounds heal. It didn't matter since she was going to burn anyway so whatevs.</p><p>Mark got a picture of the slap too. "MAN! THAT'S WICKED! HELL YEAH!"</p><p>"SHUT UP!" Glomgold almost slapped the phone out of his hands.</p><p>"HEYYYYY!"</p><p>Gloria turned her attention to all of her friends (and Glomgold) yelling in the crowd. She shot them all a look like "yo, get me the hell out of here before I am burned at the stake" kind of look. You know the one.</p><p>"You better insult me as much as you can now because you won't be able to soon!" He laughed. His statement was true either because the God bots gagged her. "Alright, tie her up."</p><p>The crowd cheered louder. Damn. They all really hated her. But that's only because they were brainwashed. Gloria is a badass bitch.</p><p>They just hate the idea of her.</p><p>Gloria tried to scream as the God Bots tied her up. Steelbeak did his signature smirk before lighting the hay below her.</p><p>"OI!" Glomgold stormed onto the stage while the fire was still rising below Gloria. "EXECUTIONS ARE ON SUNDAY NOT MONDAYS! THE FUCK YOU DOING?"</p><p>The crowd now cheered because their god was on stage. And he was still shirtless. ;)</p><p>"YOU CAN'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO ANY LONGER, GLOMGOLD!"</p><p>"THAT'S SUPREME LEADER GODGOLD TO YOU!"</p><p>As the two began to argue, Gyro ran up on stage to rescue Gloria.</p><p>Mark continued tweeting and taking pics while Ellie just stood there with Boyd. None of them were really needed for the plot at the moment.</p><p>Gyro attempted to put out the fire with his shoe like an idiot before huffing and beginning to untie her. Those knots were Senior Woodchuck good. Oof. He struggled, finally managing to untie them and he picked her up away from the flames, ungagging her. "Are you okay?!"</p><p>She held onto him tighter, shaking. Yeah she's confident and whatever but damn homegirl almost died in the worst possible way! "Y-yeah I'm fine."</p><p>He nodded, running off stage with her. He didn't bother to put her down cuz she was trying to push back some PTSD at the moment. Losing a child and now this.</p><p>He ran up to Mark and his family. "Let's go! Before Glomgold sees us."</p><p>Mark looked him up and down. "Wait. Why the hell are you carrying Gloria bridal style? That's stupid." He took a picture of it and started making a meme.</p><p>Ellie looked at Mark. "Because this cliche needs to be in every cringey fanfiction with original characters." She gestured to the two of them.</p><p>"What?"</p><p>"UGH! WE DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS!" Gyro shoved Mark out of the way with his elbow, running out of the crowd with them following.</p><p>Boyd's little legs were struggling to keep up. "Where are we going?!" He figured it was a good time to move Glomgold's hat from his face and place it on top of his head instead.</p><p>The four of them unanimously went silent as they tried to think of something while also running for their lives.</p><p>Mark finally face palmed. "I think I have an idea…"</p><p>Back on the stage, Steelbeak and Glomgold continued yelling at each other as the crowd just watched. They noticed Gloria escaping along with others, but watching their God fight a bitch seemed more important. They were all still cheering because Godgold's witty remarks were always fucking awesome.</p><p>"THIS IS MY CITY! YOU ARE NOTHING, STEELFUCK!"</p><p>Steelfuck- I mean, Steelbeak, finally had enough and shoved Glomgold onto the ground. His juicy bottom bouncing ever so lightly. "WOT?!"</p><p>The crowd gasped as Steelbeak pulled out a gun, holding it to Glomgold's head. "I am the dictator now. It is you who is nothing." He turned to the crowd. "IF GLOMGOLD WAS A GOD, THEN HOW COULD HE BE DEFEATED?"</p><p>The crowd gasped before going silent. The dude had a point.</p><p>"ONLY A TRUE GOD CAN DEFEAT SCUM OF THE EARTH LIKE HIM!"</p><p>There were collective whispers in the crowd. Man this guy was just spitting straight facts at them.</p><p>"ME, STEELBEAK, AM THE TRUE GOD! I AM THE TRUE DICTATOR OF THIS CITY!" He gestured to the city around. "DUCKBURG HAS BECOME NOTHING BUT FILTH! I WILL REBUILD IT AND MAKE IT THE BIGGEST POWER IN THE WORLD! WE WILL BE A THREAT TO ALL COUNTRIES! MY RULE WILL SPAN ACROSS THE UNIVERSE! EVERYONE WILL KNOW OF MY GOD-LIKE WISDOM BECAUSE I AM ACTUALLY A GOD!"</p><p>The crowd started cheering his name. "STEELBEAK! STEELBEAK! STEELBEAK!"</p><p>Guess that didn't take much to convince them.</p><p>"WOT!?" Glomgold tried to stand up before being held captive by God bots. God bots obeyed a God only, and the true God was Steelbeak.</p><p>Steelbeak smirked. "Put him in the same cell as Scrooge."</p><p>"WOT?!"</p><p>"And after that, start putting up wanted posters." He commanded, referring to Mark and the gang.</p><p>The true dictatorship was only beginning.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0021"><h2>21. Miss Glamour</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Gyro, Mark, Ellie, Gloria, and Boyd stood on the porch of a luxurious mansion. Not the McDuck Manor, it was much too high tech and had a better modern architectural style to it.</p><p>“Alright, here’s the deal.” Mark turned around, pointing a thumb to the door. “This is my mom’s bouchie crib so we all need to play it cool, kay?”</p><p>“This is your mother’s place?!”</p><p>Mark ignored Gyro. “She’s not just going to let some randos into her place so we’re going to have to act like…” He sighed. “Like a family.”</p><p>“EW!” Gloria gagged. </p><p>“SHUT UP!” Mark stomped his foot like a child. “So here’s the plan. Ellie, you’re my wife and Boyd is my biological son. Aka you’re not robots, my mother is convinced they're all evil. Because she’s lame. The only robot she has in a roomba. Plus she would totes make fun of me for being in love with a robot.” </p><p>Ellie nodded, covering up the wires showing on Boyd’s head (from his encounter with Steelbeak) with Glomgold’s old hat. </p><p>“So what about us?” Gloria pointed to both her and Gyro. “Are we supposed to be your distant cousins or whatever?”</p><p>“Um…I didn’t think that far ahead because you aren’t that important to me so...” He looked between Gloria and Ellie. “You're a duck too so you can just be Ellie’s sister and Gyro is your hubby. #wegood?” </p><p>“Is she going to buy this?” Gloria crossed her arms.</p><p>“Yeah,” Gyro mimicked Gloria. “This is the most idiotic plan you’ve come up with yet. Didn’t you try to scam your mother the last time you encountered her?”</p><p>Mark laughed. “I do that to her all the time. It’s chill.” He turned around, raising his fist to knock on the door. “Just… you guys should try to not say anything because you’re all stupid and bad at lying.” </p><p>“Gee, thanks.” Gyro rolled his eyes as Mark finally knocked on the door.</p><p>They all waited there silently, all looking like complete shit as they usually did. </p><p>Mark was about to knock again when the door opened. “HEY MOOOOOMMMMM- wait, hold the phone.” </p><p>Falcon Graves looked down at Mark with a scowl. “Mark Beaks.” (A/N: If you ship Mark and Falcon you ain’t gonna find that shit here. Sorry. Go find smut on fanfiction.net or something).</p><p>“GRAVESIEEEEEEEE!” He threw his hands in the air. “How are you doing bud?! Listen, is my mom around or something?” Mark went on his tippy toes to try to look past Falcon’s body to peek inside the house.</p><p>“That is of no business to you.” He was about to close the door when Mark stuck his foot in, all cliche like. </p><p>“Wait. You scammed my mom too! The hell are you doing here?”</p><p>Falcon sighed. “After the dictatorship we put our differences aside and she hired me to be her bodyguard to keep people like you out.” </p><p>“C’mon bro. She’s, like, my mom and stuff!” </p><p>“Falcon? Who’s there?” Glamour entered the chat. “Markus? What on Earth are you doing here?” She grabbed her sunglasses off her face so she could look at him properly.</p><p>“He was just leaving, Miss Glamour.” </p><p>Mark snuck passed a furious Falcon. “MOMMMMMYYYY!” He gave her a big hug and she cringed, pushing him off. </p><p>“Not on my new dress, Markus.” She scowled. A stylish queen like her would never wear a mandatory uniform. Not that it mattered anyway with Steelbeak taking over. “What do you want? I know you wouldn’t just come visit me out of the kindness of your heart.” </p><p>Mark gasped, clutching his chest in offense “Mother! Of course I want to see you! I also wanted you to meet my family!” He gestured to the rest of the gang who were still on the other side of the door. Boyd waved at her politely.</p><p>“Your what now?” Falcon looked at the lot of them. “Ew.”</p><p>“Markus.” Glamour put one hand on her hip, poking his chest. “You’re telling me you have a family and you decided to have a “little” reunion announced in the middle of plague and dictatorship? You just want shelter with some random commoners on the street don’t you? I told you to only talk to fellow millionaires and billionaires, scum.”</p><p>He waved his hand. “No no no! They’re all totes loaded! Trust meeeeeee!” He gestured for Ellie to come in. He wrapped his arm around her. “This is my, uh, wife, Ellie! Yeah!”</p><p>“You’re...wife?” She raised a brow, swinging her sunglasses in her hand. “She is definitely not on the IT list.” </p><p>“Of course she is! She’s the CEO of the publishing company, um, Pigeon! The book publishing company “Pigeon”.”</p><p>“Mmhmm… So Ellie, what books has your company published under your name? I’m sure thousands!”</p><p>Ellie wasn’t good at lying as everyone knew so Mark was basically holding his breath. She thought back to one of the mysterious books she found on the lab floor that she gave to Gyro against his will.“Fifty Shades of Grey.”</p><p>Miss Glamour was silent for a moment. “That’s a fantastic book.” That was the greatest compliment you could receive from that lady. Ellie was in the clear now.</p><p>Mark walked over and grabbed Boyd’s hand, bringing him in to show him off. “And this is my son, Boyd! Look at him! Ain’t he just the cutest little dude?” </p><p>“Hmmmmm” Miss Glamour squinted her eyes at Boyd, getting right in his face, making him a little uncomfortable. “He looks like how you did when you were little, Markus.”</p><p>“See? What did I say!?” He started sweating. “Guess he didn’t get any of Ellie’s genes hahahahah!” </p><p>“No, I suppose not…” She stood up straight again, crossing her arms.</p><p>Ellie new Mark had just raised her suspicions. She cleared her throat. “All of Mark’s genes were dominant, but I did indeed birth this child.” </p><p>Before Glamour could respond to how strangely Ellie had worded that, Mark interrupted.</p><p>“ANDDDDDD this is Ellie’s sister and her sister’s hubby, Gloria and Gyro.” He eyed them, giving them a warning to not fuck up. “Why don’t you two come in and introduce yourselves? Fun stuff!!!” </p><p>Gyro took Gloria’s hand into his own and walked in, shaking Glamour’s hand. She cringed because of how grimey he was. “I am Gyro, Scrooge McDuck’s top scientist.” He prided himself, puffing out his chest like a dumbass. “...and I’m a neurosurgeon.” </p><p>“A neurosurgeon… for Scrooge McDuck… interesting…”</p><p>Gyro nudged Gloria to take over. </p><p>“Oh, I’m just a gold digger.” Gloria couldn’t think of anything clever off the top of her head.</p><p>“...”</p><p> </p><p>Mark covered her mouth. “HAHAHAHAHAH! She’s a hoot, right?! Now why don’t you tell her the truth Glo?”</p><p>Glamour nodded to herself. “Gold diggers are such an IT thing.” </p><p>“I’m sorry, what?” Mark turned back to look at his mom who had begun typing up new ideas on how great gold diggers were.</p><p>“See, Markus?” Gloria emphasized his real name. She was never letting that go. “Now why would I ever joke about something like that? I am a very truthful woman.”</p><p>Glamour nodded again, continuing to type. “You are such an IT!” </p><p>“Miss Glamour, I’ve only known you for like, 3 strange minutes, but you’re the coolest lady I’ve ever met!”</p><p>“I know, darling.” She put her sunglasses back on. “Now, Markus. Are you sure the only reason you came was for a family reunion and not for any other reason?”</p><p>Falcon stepped forward, pointing an accusing finger at Mark. “Miss Glamour, you know there is something more to this! Mark Beaks is not to be trusted!”</p><p>“Yes, I know. But I would like to hear what he has to say.” </p><p>“I just… wanted you to see your grandson during these dark times.”</p><p>Miss Glamour sighed. “Well if that’s it, you can leave now.” She pointed to Gloria. “Except you, you’re IT.” </p><p>“Wait wait wait, mom no!” He grabbed her hand but she ripped it away. He looked just as shitty as Gyro. That was not an IT look. “This is a family reunion, you know? Don’t you want to hang out with us for a few days?”</p><p>“No.” </p><p>Ellie interrupted again, which meant bad news for everyone. “Miss Glamour, it is very wonderful to meet you. Boyd admires you very much.” She pushed Boyd forward to show him off. He proceeded to make puppy eyes. “It would be such an honor to stay with you, if only for a little while. It is absolutely not because we are on the run from the government.” </p><p>“Markus. You’re telling me you and your family are on the run from the government?” </p><p>“WHAAAAAA- pft, no!”</p><p>Ellie backed him up again. “Mark is correct. Steelbeak is not hunting us down and does not want us burned alive.” </p><p>Glamour took off her sunglasses again. “Markus….” </p><p>“UGH FINE! C’mon, mom! You don’t want me and the fam to get killed right? I got a kid!” </p><p>Boyd continued to do puppy dog eyes.</p><p>She smiled. “Being wanted criminals is such an IT.”</p><p>“...what?” </p><p>“Dinner’s at 8. Falcon, please show them to their rooms and make sure they have a change of clothes. They are absolutely hideous looking.” </p><p>“You can’t be serious.” </p><p>“Not being serious is not an IT, Graves. Do it.” </p><p>He sighed, eyeing Mark who was smirking like the little bitch he was. “Follow me.” He gritted through his teeth, before marching forward quickly. </p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>Gloria stepped out of the bathroom. She had taken a shower for the first time in what felt like months and was now wearing a bougie ass dress. “Damn,” She looked at herself in the mirror. “I am hot as fuck!” </p><p>Gyro looked at himself in the mirror as well. “We look like we’re about to go to a ball exclusively for billionaires.” To him that wasn’t a good thing. He thought he looked like an idiot in his shiny pink suit. With a fedora. He felt the need to wear it, not wanting to piss Miss Glamour off. “What do we do now?” He looked around the large room. It was basically a 5 star suite, hot tub and all. For some reason this mansion had electricity. Gyro assumed she had her own separate electricity unit, maybe run by hamsters? He needed to write that down. Wait… his hamsters would probably turn evil. He threw his newly formed idea in his Gyro brain trash bin. </p><p>“I dunno about you, but the IT girl is gonna chill until dinner!” She yeeted herself onto the bed just because.</p><p>Gyro sighed, laying down next to her. “I don’t think I can calm down enough to chill. Steelbeak could find us at any moment. I’m sure he’s bound to check Mark’s mother’s home, don’t you think?” </p><p>“This place looks like it has wall to wall security. If he even tries to come in, he’d just be zapped like a fly. That little bitch…”</p><p>“I hope you’re right…” He looked up at the chandelier above them. There was no way it wasn’t real diamonds. “I don’t mean to bring it up again. But do you need to talk about what happened with Steelbeak? Your face got beat in and then you were almost burned at the stake. And all of that happened right after, well, you know…” </p><p>She sighed and shifted so she was facing him “I mean, I guess so? It sucks, all of it. My head hurts and being almost executed is also not very fun but there really isn’t much to say about it, you know?”</p><p>“You mind if I ask you something sort of personal?” </p><p>“Of course.” She joked.</p><p>He laughed lightly before going back to serious mode. “After the loss of the baby, does it not bother you that Mark and Ellie have their own kid now? It bothers me if I’m being honest.” </p><p>She gasped and sat up on the bed “Okay I didn’t want to be the one to bring it up but yeah! The timing was just awful! I mean, he showed up the same day... I dunno it’s strange. I mean, I’m happy for them, or- Ellie at least, but I can’t help but be a little pissed off.”</p><p>“Thank you!” He threw his hands up to the ceiling. “It’s unbelievable. Obviously they had no idea what happened when they walked in but… I’ve just been pissed being around them. I know that’s low of me.” He stopped for a second. “I was never fond of them to begin with, as you know, but you understand what I mean.” </p><p>“Yeah I know what you mean.” She sighed again before continuing. “And Mark is such a shit dad too! He’s been treating poor Boyd like trash since we left camp and that only makes me want to kill him more!”</p><p>“I don’t know why Ellie’s with him, honestly. It’s ridiculous. I hate that man.” He scoffed before changing the subject off of Mark. “I know you were unsure whether you wanted the child or not… but did you ever come to a final decision before what happened?” </p><p>“Yeah, I was ready and I was looking forward to having a kid. But I was just so terrified being at that camp and the dictatorship… who knows what would have happened. I just feel awful because it was such a horrible time to have a kid but I wanted one anway. The timing couldn’t have been worse.” She laid back down. “But the worst part is I didn’t get to make the decision for them. Whether they should live or die. And I wanted them to live…” </p><p>He laid a hand on her shoulder. “Gloria, you know it’s not your fault. We didn’t plan this.” </p><p>“I guess it isn’t but it’s still haunting.” She sort of lied, still believing that it was all her fault.</p><p>“Do you still want a kid after that?” </p><p>“Maybe someday… but not when all of this is happening. I keep getting hurt, kidnapped, imprisoned, tortured, the list goes on… I can’t think about having a kid at the moment anymore.”</p><p>Gyro nodded. “I know. Steelbeak is even a larger threat than Glomgold was. There isn’t an idiot in charge anymore- actually he is an idiot, but a more violent idiot.” He continued. “But what do you say about trying again after all of this?” </p><p>“Yeah, I mean, I’m not opposed to it if you aren’t… but let’s wait to talk about it later after everything goes back to normal, okay?”</p><p>He nodded. “I agree. I guess I just wanted to clear the air? I don’t know. Sorry if I made it awkward.” </p><p>“No you’re fine! I’m glad we were finally able to talk about it now that we aren’t in any danger at the moment.”</p><p>He kissed her on the cheek, wrapping an arm around her. “It’s only 3, so let’s get some rest before dinner.”</p><p>Gloria looked down at their outfits. “Shouldn’t we check if they’re any pajamas in that large ass wardrobe?”</p><p>“Probably.” </p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>Ellie tucked Boyd into bed. He had fallen asleep quickly, desperately needing a quick break after what had happened that day. Falcon was nice enough to get some of Mark’s old pajamas for Boyd, though he wasn’t happy about it. She laid a hand across his cheek, not being able to forget what Steelbeak had done to him. She sat beside him for a while before finally getting up to sit next to Mark who was just chilling in the bouchie hot tub in the suite. </p><p>She put her feet in the hot tub, not going completely in for obvious reasons. She turned to Mark who had cucumbers over his eyes. “Hello.” </p><p>“Sup! You enjoying my mom’s killer crib!?” He took one of the cucumbers off of his eye and ate it.</p><p>“Yes. It is very nice.” She smiled. “Why did you never mention your mother before? I don’t mean to pry, but do you two not have a good relationship? She wasn’t exactly ecstatic to see you.” </p><p>“Ahhhh yeahhhhhh everytime we see each other it’s always because I’m trying to scam her or do some form of sabotage. Typical mother son things.”</p><p>Ellie gave him a strange look, thinking he was implying that was a normal thing sons did. “I hope Boyd does not do that to me.” </p><p>“That kid wouldn’t even catch a butterfly because he doesn’t want to hurt its feelings. I think you’re good.”</p><p>She looked quickly over to Boyd who was still sound asleep despite Mark’s annoying voice. “I can’t,” Ellie choked for a second. “I can’t believe what Steelbeak did to him today. There was nothing I could do to protect him.” </p><p>Mark sighed and scooted closer to where Ellie was sitting and rested his arm on her leg while he continued to stare straight ahead. “Yeah I know… But try not to worry too much over him anymore. We are at my mom’s house and she does not let anyone tell her what to do. Steelbeak will have another thing coming if he tries anything. Both you and Boyd are safe here… Plus we got like 6 hot tubs! So that’s cool!”</p><p>“How could I not continue to be worried?” She put her face in her hands. “You weren’t there during my confrontation with Steelbeak. You don’t know what he’s capable of. You didn’t-” She tried to hide the fact she was crying again, but she wasn’t very good at doing that. “You didn’t see what he did to me first hand, you only saw the aftermath. I never went into depth about it with you, we just glazed over it. He was so violent, I was sure I was going to die. For good. And toward the end, when he was bashing my head in on the desk, I started- I started to feel pain which shouldn’t even be possible. The fact he was willing to do that to a child…” </p><p>When Mark noticed that Ellie was crying he turned around to face her finally. He rested both of his arms on her legs and looked up at her. “Shit Ellie I had no idea… Look, it’ll be better now okay? We aren’t in that god forsaken camp anymore and Steelbeak has no idea where we are now. I haven’t been that great of a dad or a boyfriend but I promise that himbo looking ass won’t hurt you guys! Okay? It’s fine now.”</p><p>“All I wanted was to prevent Boyd from experiencing what I did and I failed within days. I couldn’t protect Gloria’s child and I can’t even protect ours.” She continued on without a moment's hesitation. “Even if we are safe here. Who’s to say your mother won’t find out Boyd and I are robots? You know I’m a bad liar. We’re bound to get kicked out at some point.” </p><p>“Yeah, you are kind of a bad liar but don’t worry! I have been tricking my mom since I was, like, born basically, so there’s no need to worry about us getting kicked out. Ellie, I can’t stress enough that we are going to be okay now!”</p><p>“If you say so…” </p><p>Mark decided to change the subject to lighten the mood. “You should hop on in the hot tub!”</p><p>Ellie wiped her eyes, even though there were no actual tears, and looked down at him. “I can’t. I’m a robot.” </p><p>“Oh yeahhhhhhh… Well do you want some lemonade or som- oh nevermind.”</p><p>Ellie stood up. “I’m going to shut down before dinner if that is okay.” </p><p>“‘Kayyyyyyy love youuuuuuu!” Mark called out to her hoping that would be an alright save after what he deemed an awkward conversation. He went back to vibin’ in the hot tub.</p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0022"><h2>22. Every Family Dinner Ever</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“...and then you and Gloria went through a broken window at Target even though the doors were unlocked. She immediately went to stuff her pockets with candy and you went to the book to find some explicit novels. Duck Jesus, it was so wild and I was, like, sooooo irritated. But looking back on it, damn it was funny.” </p><p>Ellie laughed. “Goodness. I can’t believe I did all that. I would never.” </p><p>The two were heading to dinner. It was 8:20 already, but Mark insisted they had to be fashionably late. She trusted him since he was raised by that snobby woman. The two weren’t excited for dinner, Mark knew it was going to be awkward as hell. To make matters worse, their outfits were extremely uncomfortable. They looked like they were going to prom together or some shit. Ellie was wearing a slim dress while Mark wore some contemporary two piece with some killer shades (A/N: use your imagination because I’m too lazy to). </p><p>Their arms were locked so when they walked into the dining hall they would look even more like a married couple. Ellie didn’t mind that at all obviously. Boyd was skipping ahead, wearing a cute little red suit. Glamour wouldn’t like it, but he still had Glomgold’s hat on. Mark didn’t have any tools to repair him so the hat needed to stay on. Boyd looked super cute with it so it didn’t matter much anyways.</p><p>“I know! It was terrible! You and Gloria were like BESTIESSSSS! She was so happy to be around you. Man, when we wanted to change you back she got so pissed. I’ve seen her upset before but this was next level. And when you changed back, oh boy, she just walked away dude. You probs remember that though. LOL!” Mark nudged her, hinting that she was supposed to laugh. “Anyway, I’m excited for din din!!!!!! I hope there’s caviar!” </p><p>“Wait wait…back up for a second.” Ellie frowned. “Gloria was upset when I turned back?”</p><p>“I mean, yeah? You were a more intense version of her, of course she wanted you to stay that way.”</p><p>“Oh…”</p><p>Mark raised a brow. “Ummm… and you’re upset about that because…?”</p><p>She sighed. “I shouldn’t be upset. But yes, I am a bit. I really don’t understand what our friendship is.”</p><p>“Whatcha mean, E-dawg?”</p><p> </p><p>“It is so complicated. She despised me at first for a good reason, since you and I were bad guys and everything. Then we came to an understanding when we were looking for you after our prison escape. She said she agreed to be friends with me and everything seemed to be fine. However, after I came back to life after my head decapitation, she started acting weird around me again because I was set on killing Scrooge and I followed commands too much. That’s understandable as well. But her being upset with me now, if that is how you want to put it, does not make any sense. I don’t know what happened. I promised to protect her child and everything.” Ellie watched Boyd skip ahead as she spoke. “I would say it is probably because I failed to protect her child, but even before that we didn’t speak much at the camp. It was just me killing people for her and that was about it. It has to be something else…”</p><p>Mark rolled his eyes. “Honestly, why are you worried about it? Gloria’s just freaking weird. Me and her made up, but like, we haven’t played Minecraft together yet.” He blanked for a second, gears turning in his small brain. “Oh wait, that’s because most computers don’t work right now. Yeah. Okay. I need to tweet about this bullshit.” </p><p>“Maybe it’s because I despise Gyro?” She wondered aloud. “I don’t think it’s that either.”</p><p>“Meh. I guess she’s just into crazy bitches for friends.”</p><p> </p><p>Ellie looked at him. “Do you think it is because I’m a robot?”</p><p> </p><p>Mark looked back at her. “Are you implying that she’s… tech racist?”</p><p>“No. I mean since I am a robot my personality tends to be rather bland. Maybe she doesn’t like that I can’t express my emotions properly.” She nudged her head to Boyd so Mark would look at him. “Boyd can express his emotions just fine. Why can’t I?”</p><p>“I programmed you to follow commands for Glomgold, plus he hates people’s emotions so that’s another reason I left that out. I programmed Boyd to act like a real boy because he needed to act like one on purpose. But I think you express yourself just fine. You learned to cry and whatever so that’s cool.”</p><p>“Thanks?”</p><p>“I mean you’re forming your own personality and being bland is just a part of it. That’s not a bad thing. Don’t let Gloria get to you, she’s just a fucking weirdo.”</p><p>“You’re right.” Ellie nodded before whispering. “But maybe I’m the weirdo…”</p><p> </p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>Gyro sat next to Miss Glamour at the dining table. Although the table was extremely large, they all sat on one side. </p><p>Glamour shined her nails as she waited for her son and the rest to show. “I must applaud you two.” She looked up and Gloria and Gyro, but her sunglasses blocked her approving stare. “You arrived fashionably late, unlike my good for nothing son.” <br/>“Yep that’s just how we roll, bitch! Oh shit- it’s fine if I call you ‘bitch’ right? It’s endearing I promise.”</p><p>“Of course, dear. You’re the only one in your shit show of a family that I enjoy being around.” </p><p>Gyro took offense to that but didn’t say anything. He just adjusted his fedora, pretending like he was occupied with other things. </p><p>Glamour looked between the two of them. “How did you two meet?” </p><p>Now that got Gyro’s attention. “Oh, uh…” He couldn’t say he hired her as an intern, could he? No. He couldn’t. He didn’t know how Glamour would react to that. Like the pussy and chicken he was, he chickened out. “Why don’t you tell her the story, Gloria? It’s a good one!” </p><p>“Sure thing! So we were both at one of Scrooge McDuck’s famous 5-star parties, right? And I dunno, I just saw him from across the room and I thought he was hot and had a lot of money so yeah. This gold digger struck gold ya feel?”</p><p>Glamour giggled like a badass bitche. “I do feel. But you mean to tell me you thought a twink like him is hot?” She pointed at him, continuing the laugh. “You are way out of his league dear, even if it’s for the money.” </p><p>“Well, I put a lot of effort into my aesthetic. Thank you very much.” Gyro crossed his arms. </p><p>“Not hard enough am I right, Mommy G?” Gloria nudged her. She gave Gyro a passing glance to say“I’ sorry”.</p><p>“You and I are always right.”</p><p>Thankfully the others entered the dining hall to save Gyro from being roasted. Being around Mark was probably worse but oh well. </p><p>“What’s up, Mommmmmyyyyy! What’s for dinner cuz ya boy is starving!” Mark rubbed his stomach before sitting down with Ellie and Boyd on the other side of the table. </p><p>“Slow-cooked boeuf bourguignon.” </p><p>“EWWWWW! I wanted caviar! This is lame!” </p><p>Glamour took her shades off, placing it down next to her large variety of silverware. It was going to be one of those dinners where you didn’t know which utensil to use. “Speaking of “lame”, you showed up late, Markus.”</p><p>“Ummm,” He gave her a disapproving look back, even though he still had his killer shades on in the dim lit room. “Yeah. Fashionably late.” </p><p>“Gloria and Gyro showed up at 8:15, that is fashionably late. Not 8:27.” </p><p>“Eh.” He waved her off. “Whatevs. Is the food almost here or what? Like I said, ya boy is hungy.”</p><p>“Mr. Graves is still preparing the dishes. I hope he poisons yours.” </p><p>She looked at all of Mark’s very strange family, though Gloria was the least strange of them all. The first thing she did was eye their hands. “Why are none of you wearing wedding rings?” </p><p>Whatever complaint about being hungry that Mark was about to spout went back down his throat. He had no idea what to say to that. He looked over at Gyro and Gloria. Again, Ellie wouldn’t be any help with this. Ellie was aware so it was alright. </p><p>Gloria shrugged “I pawned mine away for double the worth! Then I bought a Gucci and Louis Vitton hybrid car thing before I drove it into the ocean for sport.”</p><p>If Glamour heard that from anybody else she wouldn’t have believed it, but this from Gloria. She trusted that snazzy hoe. “Very smart of you all. I’m impressed, Gloria. I know the rest of them would never come up with such a brilliant idea without your help. I never flaunted my marriage either. How could I when the poor bastard was a P.E. teacher? We broke up for a reason.” </p><p>“I never liked P.E. teachers.” Gyro added, trying to get on Miss Glamour’s side. He never cared for approval, but she was all over Gloria and he was lowkey jelly. </p><p>Glamour glared at him, confused. “Like you ever attended gym class.” </p><p>“I was busy volunteering for the community and researching robotics and neuroscience.” He half lied. The volunteering and robotics were true, just not the neuroscience thing. </p><p>“Hm.” </p><p>Gyro didn’t know whether that “hm” was good or bad. He wasn’t going to ask. </p><p>“Dinner is served.” Falcon Graves entered the room, carrying all plates at once like the pro waiter he was. He placed them down one by one, before proceeding to pour every wine. He made sure never took his disgusted Glare off of Mark, but he was too busy tweeting about how lame dinner was to notice. </p><p>“About time.” Glamour sneered. Graves rolled his eyes and walked away to do whatever the hell he did when he didn’t have orders. Probably watch sports or something stupid. </p><p>Everyone dug in immediately, including Boyd. He almost spilled some on his shirt when Ellie caught it last minute, tucking a napkin in his collar. </p><p>Ellie looked down at her plate and then at the wine glass. She knew Miss Glamour was going to bring up she wasn’t touching it and she needed to come up with a lie, but her mind was just too occupied thinking about the tension between her and Gloria for her to put all her effort into doing so.</p><p>As soon as the thought crossed her mind, Glamour looked up at Ellie. “It’s impolite to not eat, you know.” </p><p>“Oh, um, I’m vegetarian.” </p><p>Miss Glamour pointed a fancy fork at her, before pointing it down at the plate. “There are vegetables on your plate.” </p><p>“Oh…” Ellie started panicking and it was plain to see. “The meat is touching the vegetables.”</p><p>“No it isn’t.” Glamour snapped. “I invited you into my house and you will eat the meal prepared for you.” </p><p>Ellie glanced at everyone at the table, even Gyro, pleading for some sort of cover because homie was fucked. </p><p>Gloria was the one to save her ass. “Oh I’m sorry she forgot to mention, Ellie got this really expensive surgery done in China where she only has to eat like, once a month. It’s crazy I know but basically they just go in and shrink the stomach from the inside. It’s a rare surgery it’s not even mentioned online!”</p><p>Ellie was pleased with the excuse, but was even more confused Gloria backed her up. Were they friends or not?</p><p> </p><p>“Hm.” Glamour tapped the table. “I need that done. I’ve gained 3 pounds in the past 5 years.”</p><p>“I’ll try to get you a business card. I know a guy.”</p><p>Miss Glamour smiled. “It’s nice to see you supporting your sister after such an intense surgery. What was it like growing up together?”</p><p>Ellie’s leg had started jittering under the table from all of the anxiety building up inside her. “It was...wonderful.” </p><p>“Yeah, totes!” Mark added. “They just can’t stand being apart from one another! That’s why we brought Gloria and her twink hubby to visit you too!”</p><p>“Really?” She looked between Ellie and Gloria. “I didn’t think you two were close. I haven’t seen you two talk to one another at all.” </p><p>It was starting to get harder for Gloria to keep coming up with lies for everyone. “Oh yeah well… That’s just how we communicate I guess! By… not communicating.”</p><p>“Oh. I would say it is because Gloria wishes I was another person. Isn’t that right?” Ellie covered her beak as soon as she said it. Her emotions were never in check when they needed to be. It wasn’t all Gloria, the stress of protecting Boyd didn’t help. “HAHA OOPS!” She laughed very unnaturally, trying to pull the train back. The whole table continued to be silent as they stared at her, even Boyd who had his mouth stuffed. “That was the wine talking. You know how I get when I am drunk, Gloria.” Everyone then looked at her wine glass that was full. </p><p>“But you haven’t even taken a sip of your wine…” Glamour stated.</p><p>Gloria managed a fake laugh too to help cover it up “Yeah Ellie is such a kidder. I dunno what her deal is tonight.”</p><p>Gyro covered his face, knowing what was about to go down. </p><p>Mark was getting ready to tweet. </p><p>“Haha. Yes. Gloria just loves kidders. Way more than someone bland and boring.” </p><p>Mark leaned in to whisper to her real quick. “Yo, the drama is totes worth it for twitter, but what are you doing?”</p><p>Ellie didn’t respond because she didn’t know the answer. </p><p>“Ummm, what are you implying, sis?”</p><p>“I’m not sure. I bet you can come up with an idea of what I mean. L-O-L.” She said “L-O-L” in quotations since she wanted to emphasize it after hearing Mark say it right before dinner. She wasn’t sure what it meant but she thought it fit for whatever reason.</p><p>Mark leaned over to Boyd. “Hey, uh, sport? How about you go find the roomba to talk to or something?” The little dude needed to get out of the room before things escalated.</p><p>“I can’t talk to roombas.” He whispered back.</p><p>“Well, you should try...again?” Mark questioned. Boyd nodded excitedly, running out of the room to look for a roomba. He saw one earlier in their suite. </p><p>“Ellie, I know you’re not starting something right in front of Miss Glamour are you? That’s not cool.”</p><p>Mark shrugged. “I mean… she’s just saying.” </p><p>“Oh you’re a part of this too, Markus? Tell me what it is you’re trying to say.”</p><p>“Uh, like.” Mark took a hot selfie with his shades showing only the top half of his eyes. “You know what we’re talking about so yeah. #whatevs.”</p><p>Ellie cringed. She had calmed down but this argument wasn’t stopping with Mark backing her up. She appreciated it but they were both screwed now. </p><p>Gloria scoffed “Whatever. I don’t have time for this anyways…” </p><p>Miss Glamour loved the smoking hot tea that was brewing. She wasn’t going to push it, but, hot dog, she didn’t mind. “It’s alright, Gloria. Family dinners are a perfect time to settle things with family. I understand.” </p><p>Gyro now understood where Mark got some of his attitude from. </p><p>“Thank you, Miss Glamour. I’m sorry about Ellie though I’ve never heard her start an argument before considering she’s pretty bland.” Gloria spoke about her “sister” as if she wasn’t even at the table anymore.</p><p>Ellie chuckled awkwardly. “Gloria’s right, Miss Glamour. I am just soooo bland that I am not a good enough sister. Or maybe I am a good sister and she is just shallow.” </p><p>“What did you just call me?!” Gloria slammed her hands on the table. Gyro was scared again while Mark was slurping his wine. </p><p>“Shallow.” She shrugged. “Take it as a compliment, you have a personality trait unlike me. Too bad it’s a negative one.” </p><p>“I guess being shallow is better than being a deadpanned robot!”</p><p>Thankfully, Miss Glamour took that as a figure of speech.</p><p>Ellie remained silent for a moment, not knowing how to react. Gloria knew that insult would hit home and she went there anyway. “You’re right. But I do consider myself a good sister since I offered to kill people for you, too bad you can’t see that. We just don’t see eye to eye.” She remained “deadpanned” just as Gloria said to piss her off more. “You would never do such a thing for me. Not even if my face got beat in and a limb torn off haha!” Ellie kept going before Gloria could yell at her. “Well I guess you can’t appreciate me since your lovely husband never told you about what I went through to protect him.”</p><p>Gloria turned to Gyro “What is she talking about, Gyro?”</p><p>Glamour rested her head in her hands, smiling at all the tea. God she was thriving right now.</p><p>Oh god. He did not want to be brought into this. “Uhhhhh…she just took a punishment for me at the camp. But I could’ve taken it because it was nothing. She’s just trying to make it seem like it’s a big deal to make you mad at me. You know she’s not a fan of me. Why would she do anything extreme to protect me?” Gyro half lied because he was a pussy. It was a big deal but she had no reason to protect him. He bet she did it for pity. </p><p>Ellie fake smiled. “Oh yes. I love pity. I would die for it if it meant I got attention.”  </p><p>“Gyro, you know what happened you little bitch! What the fuck?!” Mark jumped in to back Ellie up.</p><p>“Liarrrrr.” Gyro sang in response just to be snarky and keep Gloria on his side. </p><p>“Ellie, what the fuck is your problem? Why are you starting shit and making everyone mad? What did we do to you?!”</p><p>Ellie sneered at this point, her deadpan look gone. “What haven’t you done to me? You don’t appreciate anything I’ve done for both of you.” She kept an indoor voice though her tone had spite as she pointed to both Gyro and Gloria. “Everything I have gone through is just glazed over like it’s nothing! My issues don’t matter because I’m just so deadpanned, right? I can’t feel emotions.” </p><p>Damn. Ellie had a point and both Gyro and Gloria knew it but they couldn’t stop the argument now. “Right, you’ve done so much for us! It was so great of you to bring Boyd into all of our lives the same day that I had my miscarriage!”</p><p>Miss Glamour gasped. The teeeeeaaaaaaa.</p><p>“HEY!” Mark stood up from his chair. “Don’t you DARE bring Boyd into this!” </p><p>Gyro stood up as well. “Why shouldn’t we!? We should have been parents! Not you two! You both have no idea what you’re doing, especially you Mark! You’re both bad influences! And you, Ellie,” He looked down at Ellie who was still sitting. “You couldn’t even protect your own kid from Steelbeak!” </p><p>Ellie stood up, her chair falling to the ground, and she slapped Gyro as hard as he could. He stumbled back, covering his cheek with both hands. </p><p>Miss Glamour started clapping because that blow was 10/10. It was an IT. </p><p>Gloria gasped and finally stood up as well to check to see if he was alright before shooting Ellie another pissed off glare “Hey! No one slaps him but me!”</p><p>“OH, SHUT THE HELL UP GLORIA!” Mark yelled. “YOU KNOW HE’S IN THE WRONG!” </p><p>“YOU’RE STARTING SHIT WITH ME AGAIN BEAKS?! I SWEAR YOU WILL NEVER LEARN YOUR LESSON UNTIL I BEAT THE FUCK OUT OF YOU AGAIN!”</p><p>“OH, I’M STARTING IT! EVERYTHING WOULD’VE REMAINED CHILL IF YOU JUST TREATED US WITH SOME DAMN RESPECT! YOU KNOW ELLIE NEEDED A KID! HOW WERE WE SUPPOSED TO KNOW ABOUT THE MISCARRIAGE? WERE WE SUPPOSED TO LEAVE BOYD BEHIND TO MAKE YOU HAPPY? HUH?”</p><p>Gyro piped up again. “YEAH! HE WOULD’VE BEEN SAFER IN THE CAMP THAN WITH YOU TWO!” </p><p>Ellie started crying again. “YOU THINK I WANTED STEELBEAK TO GET A HOLD OF HIM!? HE PRIED HIM FROM ME AND KICKED ME DOWN! I WOULD HAVE TRADED PLACES WITH BOYD IN A SECOND IF I COULD HAVE! I WOULD’VE LET HIM DO WHATEVER THE HELL HE WANTED TO ME AGAIN IF IT MEANT I COULD PROTECT HIM!” </p><p>Mark grabbed Ellie’s hand. “Come on. We should just head back to the suite. It’s not worth it.”</p><p>“OH NO!” She ripped her hand away, not even looking at him. “I WANT TO HEAR WHAT OTHER SHIT THEY HAVE TO SAY!” She scowled at Gloria. “YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO ME! IT SHOULD’VE BEEN YOU WHO GOT YOUR HEAD BLOWN OFF IN AGARTHA!” Ellie threw her hands in the air. “WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO SAY? “BUT ELLIE, I ALMOST GOT BURNED AT THE STAKE!” BOO FUCKING HOO! I BET THE FIRE THAT WASN’T EVEN TOUCHING YOUR SKIN HURT SO BAD! MAN, LET’S ALL PITY GLORIA! ELLIE CAN’T FEEL PAIN SO IT DOESN’T MATTER! BUT WHAT IF I TELL YOU I DISCOVERED I DID WHILE GETTING MY FACE BEAT IN ON BEHALF OF GYRO?! DOESN’T MATTER BECAUSE NO ONE CARES! I’M JUST A DEADPANNED BITCH WHO’S A SHIT MOTHER, RIGHT?!” Ellie took her wine and splashed it all over Gloria. </p><p>“What the fuck?!” Gloria shielded her eyes from the red wine as best as she could. Now her Gucci ass dress was ruined. Glamour gasped. That dress was only a pitifully low price of 5 million but she liked it anyway!</p><p> </p><p>Mark scrunched himself up awkwardly. He knew Ellie was new to emotions and everything since she had only been alive for a few months but dang. “Yoooooo, Ellie. Maybe we should chill out, yeah?” </p><p>“No. It’s fine, Markus.” Gloria waved his comment aside, wiping the wine from her eyes as she stared Ellie down. The part that stuck out from her rant the most was the burning at the stake part. “So what you’re implying is that you wanted me to burn at the stake? You want me to experience more pain? A miscarriage wasn’t enough to appease you?” </p><p>Ellie was so furious that that part was spat out without thinking. All of it was spat out without thinking. “What? No. I-”</p><p>“Don’t deny it. You want me dead now because I’m hurting your feelings. Am I your next target now, you killing machine?” </p><p>Ellie balled her fists. “I wouldn’t push your luck, Gloria.”</p><p> </p><p>“Say it. Say you want me dead.”</p><p>“I didn’t before but I sure as hell do now. I want you dead.” She bit. “You should keep your distance. You know what I’m capable of.” </p><p>Gyro started getting evil robot vibes. He wanted to snap back but now was the time to calm her down. “Ellie… you aren’t thinking straight right now.” </p><p>“Yeah, E-dawg. Gloria is irritating and all but like… let’s all relax here.” </p><p>“HA!” Gloria threw her head back and wiped away a fake tear. “I’m not scared of you. I’m the only one not scared of you.” </p><p>“That’s only because your IQ is low.”</p><p>“Is that your only insult? Creative.” Gloria said. “I kept convincing myself that you were good and changed, but you didn’t. I see that. You can’t control your emotions because you aren’t meant to have them. You aren’t meant to be sentient. I don’t even think you are now. Explains why you’re dating Mark.”</p><p>“#ow?”</p><p>Glamour was a bit confused on the whole “Gloria hinting Ellie’s a robot thing” so it was still undercover to everyone’s luck. But she was hella confused. Didn’t matter since the argument was getting better. She needed to tweet about this. </p><p>Ellie thought back to Mark’s “tech-racist” comment. “So you are racist?! That’s why you don’t like me!”</p><p>Glamour eyed Ellie up and down. “Honey. You are white as a feather. Literally.”</p><p>Gloria, however, knew what Ellie was getting at. “Sure. Why not? Let’s go with that. Everyone like you,” Implying robots. “Are all evil. I await the day Boyd becomes the same way. Especially being raised by you.” </p><p>“You won’t live to see the day, Gloria.” </p><p>“Alright, whore. I’ll be sleeping with a knife now.” Gloria tapped her chin. “Or maybe I’ll just push you into the suite hot tub sometime when you’re least expecting it? That sound good?” </p><p>“Sounds great.”</p><p>“Good!”</p><p>“Fantastic!” Ellie laughed. “Guess I am evil. Maybe I can try to get on Steelbeak’s good side again. Why not try?! Why not destroy all of Duckburg? Wipe out all you sentient people.”</p><p>“Great idea! Go for it!” </p><p>“OKAYYYYYY!” Mark put his hands out. “Ellie, Boyd didn’t finish his dinner so how about you take it to him.” He handed her the kid’s plate. “He’s hanging with a roomba somewhere.” </p><p>She looked down at the smashed food. “Fine.” And as quickly as she said it, she peaced out. </p><p>Mark sat down, running his hands down his face. “Duck Jesus…” </p><p>“Your “wife” is insane.” Gyro said, sitting back down with a wine-soaked Gloria. She would’ve left too but the food was too damn good. </p><p>“Noooooooo, she just has… trouble controlling her emotions.” He turned to his mother. “Stress right? Haha!” </p><p>“Yeah. It was just stress.” Gloria muttered sarcastically. </p><p>“Yeah, Glo, seriously though. Bringing Boyd into all this was #uncool.” </p><p>“And her threatening to kill me was fine?”</p><p>Gyro nodded his head. “Yep. Your morals are absolutely perfect, Mark.” </p><p>“Alright, everyone!” Miss Glamour snapped her fingers to get everyone’s attention. “That. Was an IT. Most entertaining dinner I’ve had in years.”</p><p>“Glad to hear it, mom.” </p><p>“Gloria, dear.” Glamour laid her hand on Gloria’s. “My sister threatened to kill me all the time. It’s fine. You know what we should do?”</p><p>Gloria smiled. Miss Glamour was lit.  “What?”</p><p>“Spa day!” </p><p>“You got a spa in here? RAD! Hell yeah. I’m in, bitch. I need a break after dealing with Ellie.”</p><p> </p><p>“I’m sure Ellie needs a break too, that’s why she should come along.”</p><p>Gyro jumped in. “Are you insane? You want to bring them together again?” </p><p>Miss Glamour snapped her fingers again and nodded. “Honey, you men don’t understand women. Us bitches get crazy all the time. We just need to talk through it while getting pampered.” </p><p>“Miss Glamour…” Gloria started rubbing the back of her head with her other hand. “I appreciate the offer but that doesn’t sound like the best idea. Our situation is a bit different compared to other…” She sighed, not wanting to say it again. “Sisters.”</p><p>“No it isn’t.” Miss Glamour snapped, but in a cool bitch way. “I’ll retrieve you two at 10 am tomorrow. Alright? Alright.” Glamour gave Gloria a light tap on the hand before removing hers. </p><p>Gloria raised a finger. “Ummm…”</p><p>Miss Glamour turned to other people at the table. “As for you two.” She pointed to Mark and Gyro doing an “I’m watching you two” type movement. “You two are not invited. I’ll tell Mr. Graves to take you two…and the kid I guess, to do whatever men do. There’s a mini golf set in the backyard.” A backyard that was miles long. “Or you can watch sports.”</p><p>Mark groaned. “But moooooooooooooom!”</p><p> </p><p>“Shut up, Markus.” </p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>Carrying her son’s plate, Ellie sighed before knocking on the suite’s door, even though it was her own. “Boyd? Are you in there?”</p><p>He nodded before realizing his mom couldn’t see him. “Sure am!” </p><p>She opened the door and smiled, carrying his food over to him. “What are you doing?” </p><p>“Dad said I should try to talk to the roomba again.” He pointed to the one in front of him that was currently shut down. “But I don’t think I can. Am I doing something wrong?”</p><p>She tried to give a cheerful laugh as best as she could, but it was strained after the argument that had just gone down, specifically the part when she threatened to kill Gloria, which was a bluff. It seemed the others didn’t catch onto that lie which made the whole thing just peachy.</p><p>Boyd didn’t seem to notice her laugh was pained. </p><p>“No, you aren’t. I can’t speak to roombas either.” Ellie smiled. She placed the plate of food in front of him. “You didn’t get to eat much of your food so I brought it to you. I hope you’re still hungry.” </p><p>“Yeah I am!” He dug in immediately with his hands, food spilling everywhere. Ellie didn’t feel the need to comment about it at the moment. Table manners didn’t matter when they were on the floor. “Why did I have to leave? What happened?”</p><p> </p><p>“Oh…” Ellie sighed, trying to think of something to say. “Just an adult conversation.”</p><p>Boyd didn’t question it. “That sounds cool!”</p><p>They sat silently together as Boyd finished his meal. Afterward she put the plate on one of the many dressers and helped clean him up, as well as pick out a pair of pajamas for him. Before he entered the bathroom to change, he turned to her. “Mom… do you think you can sleep next to me tonight? I’m afraid… Steelbeak will come back.”</p><p>Ellie’s robo heart shattered. “Of course I will.” She reassured him. “I won’t let anything happen to you again okay? I promise.” </p><p>“Thanks.” He said before closing the bathroom door behind him.</p><p>Ellie hoped she could keep that promise. And she also hoped he didn’t turn out to be like her. </p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p>
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<a name="section0023"><h2>23. Wanted Criminals Need Spa Days Too</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Glomgold’s fat little shirtless body hit the cracked, concrete floor. He landed right in front of Scrooge McFuck after being shoved in by Steelbeak. </p><p>He hopped up, cockroach crawling close to Steelbeak and waving his fist. “WOT?! YOU CAN’T DO THIS! I AM FLINTHEART GLOMGOLD! I AM YOUR GOD!” </p><p>Steelbeak crossed his arms. “Did you honestly convince yourself you had god-like powers.”</p><p>“Ughhhh…. No?”</p><p>“You’re pathetic. You and Scrooge will be executed when you both are on the brink of death. You both shall suffer together in here until you practically starved. But that’ll take awhile for you, Flintheart.”</p><p>“EXCUUUUUSE ME?!” </p><p>Steelbeak chuckled. “You two won’t live long enough to see the hell I will turn this city into. If you believed it was bad now, it will become so much worse. I will have 10x more control of the people. Duckburg will become the ultimate threat.”</p><p> </p><p>“IT’S GLOMBURG!” </p><p>“Not anymore.” </p><p>The cell door slammed closed, the bolt locking purposely loud. Steelbeak stormed away, God Bots following while two stood outside the cell. </p><p>Scrooge rolled his eyes. “What did you do, Flintheart?”</p><p>“NOTHING, SCROOOOGIE! THIS WAS PART OF MY, UH, PLAN! YEAH!” </p><p>“I’m the smartest of the smarties. What did you do?”</p><p>“UGH FINE!!!!” Glomgold face planted, his body going flat like a cockroach. His spirit animal. “I may or may have not gotten overthrown by Steelfuck.”</p><p>Scrooge laughed. “I knew it was a matter of time.”</p><p>“SHUT UP! YOO SHOULD BE SUFFERING!”</p><p>“I am now that you’re here.” </p><p>The two sat in awkward silence with Glomgold still laying face down on the ground. </p><p>“UGH! THIS IS BORING! HOW DO I GET OUT OF HERE?!” Glomgold finally sat up and looked at his surroundings. He figured that Scrooge must’ve had a means of escaping. He always did.</p><p>Scrooge shrugged. “I don’t know. I didn’t come up with a plan because I know you couldn’t harm my family. You’re too stupid so I just decided to hang out until all of this passed over.”</p><p> </p><p>“WOT? YOU WERE ALL SCARED!”</p><p>“I took theatre when I was lad. I wanted to make you happy before you started crying like you are now.”</p><p>“FUCK YOOOOOO!” Glomgold started hitting his fists on the ground, and his feet, acting like a two year old crying over shitting their pants. “FINE! I’LL COME UP WITH A PLAN! FIRST WE GET THE SHARKS-”</p><p>Scrooge cut him off. “Absolutely not.”</p><p>“MY PLAN WORKED FOR THE MOONVASION!”</p><p>“That was a one time thing. Besides, how would you even get your sharks here anyhow?” </p><p>Glomgold hopped up, storming around the room. “I DUNNO! WITH MY GOD-LIKE POWERS!” </p><p>“If you had “God-Like powers” then you wouldn’t need sharks.”</p><p>Glomgold crawled backward over to Scrooge. “IF YOU’RE SO SMART THEN YOU COME UP WITH A PLAN!”</p><p> </p><p>“I can’t come up with a plan on my own! Steelbeak is way more threatening than you!”</p><p>“WOT?!”</p><p>Scrooge pinched in between his eyes. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but we need to team up again.”</p><p>“WOOOOTTTTTTT?!”</p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>Gloria woke up, and yes, she did have a knife under her pillow. Gyro was already awake, reading one of the many books Glamour had around the mansion. Sadly they were all about celebrities and fashion but he needed something to do. </p><p>He licked his finger, turning a page. “I’m glad Ellie didn’t murder us last night.” He muttered. Gyro didn’t even need to look at Gloria to know she was awake. It was like he could hear her eyes open or something. </p><p>“Yeah, that was sweet of her.” Gloria yawned and sat up in the bed too. Man she was not ready for whatever Miss Glamour had planned with this spa day. Ellie might actually commit second degree murder.</p><p>Maybe Gyro could read minds too. “Not ready for the spa day?” </p><p>“No. I’m not sure what to even say to either of them.”</p><p>“Just act normal, like nothing happened and get it over with. Or not. That’s up to you.” He looked over at her, putting the book down. “Maybe you won’t even have to go. It’s 10:30 and Miss Glamour hasn’t even shown up yet. I know she’s all about being “fashionably late”, but I believe 15 minutes after is fashionably late for her.” </p><p>A loud knock came from the door. Like clockwork, bro. Before they could answer, Miss Glamour walked in all pimped out like the badass she was. “You ready for the spa dear?” It wasn’t a question. “Don’t worry about changing. They’ll give us robes so you won’t look so…” She waved her arm at her, up and down. “Sloppy. Don’t get wrong, you’re still an IT.” </p><p>Gloria was lucky to be on Miss Glamour’s good side, considering how it’s very rare to have that, so she didn’t want to make her upset even if she would’ve rather have jumped out the window and taken her chances with Steelbeak then go to the spa day. Gloria sighed and got out of bed to follow Miss Glamour out.</p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>Ellie woke up in the suite bed, having shut down next to Boyd last night. She wondered what had woken her up before she noticed the early afternoon sun peeking through the curtains. It must’ve been her internal clock. Or the loud clicking sound from Mark’s phone as he took selfies on the other side of the king sized bed. </p><p>She remained laying down, looking over at him. Boyd was still asleep with her arms wrapped around him. “Good morning.” </p><p>“Heyyyyyyyyyyyyy!” Mark was tweeting his morning selfies like he does every morning. “Good luck spending time with my mom all day HA!”</p><p>Ellie sat up. “...pardon?” </p><p>“Ohhhhhh riiiiiiight, you left the table before my mom told you but yeah. You, Gloria, and my mom are all gonna have a spa day together to talk things over.”</p><p>“What?!” Ellie looked down at Boyd to make sure she hadn’t woken him up. She hadn’t. “I can’t after what happened last night. That is ridiculous.” </p><p>Mark shrugged “Well you can’t exactly tell my mom “no” sooooooo…” Mark continued “If it makes you feel any better, I have to go mini golfing or whatever with Gyro of all people. ugh.”</p><p>She sighed. “Can I ask you something?” </p><p>“Ye!” Mark continued typing, not looking at her.</p><p>“Do you think I’m evil? Just naturally a bad person?” </p><p>Mark finally looked at her “What?! No way! God don’t let those losers get to you like that! I literally programmed you so I would know if I made an evil robot.”</p><p>“Thanks.” She said. “I shouldn’t have let things get so out of hand. I don’t know what came over me. But what both Gyro and Gloria said wasn’t alright either. I don’t think I can forget or forgive what they said.” </p><p>Miss Glamour knocked on their door before letting herself in without permission. It’s her house, her rules. Gloria was there but she stood on the other side of the door, trying to stay as far away as she could.</p><p>“MOOOOOOOMMMM! GAWD!” </p><p>“Shut up.” Glamour turned her attention to Ellie. “It’s spa time, are you ready?”</p><p>“Miss Glamour, with all due respect-”</p><p>“No excuses and I will not be repeating myself.” Glamour cut her off as she walked out of the room. She stayed at the door frame to wait on her.</p><p>Ellie sighed, before looking back at Mark. “Can you make Boyd breakfast when he wakes up? A healthy one. Don’t feed him Pop Tarts.” </p><p>“Pop Tarts are healthy for you though!”</p><p>“No they are not. Make sure he has protein, fiber, and fruit.” She waved goodbye before Mark could complain again and joined Glamour and… Gloria. They made eye contact and Ellie immediately scowled against her will. </p><p>Glamour turned to Ellie and snapped her fingers. “We will not be having that on Spa day, young lady.” </p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>The three walked into a humid room, all in swimsuits. Miss Glamour was the only one to wear one rather exposing. She had insisted going to the hot tub first to Ellie’s horror. </p><p>The walk there was not pleasant. Gloria and Ellie hadn’t said a word to each other, but they both stood on guard just in case the other made an aggressive move. Glamour just chattered the whole time, asking them questions about themselves separately. </p><p>Miss Glamour wasted no time getting into the hot tub, waving both of them over. Gloria was the next one to get in, leaving Ellie the only one not in the hot tub. Gloria knew her issues with being in water and she couldn’t help but smirk like a little bastard because of it.</p><p>“Ellie, get in.” Miss Glamour shot Ellie a look. She wanted to get to the tea as soon as possible.</p><p>Ellie, knowing Gloria wasn’t going to back her up, knew her lies were going to get her nowhere. “I’m very sensitive to heat so I believe it would be a health risk for me to enter the boiling liquid.” </p><p>“I have my own personal doctors, nurses and hospital rooms. If that happens I'll call them. Get in.”</p><p>“I have a… fear of water.” </p><p>“It’s 3 feet deep.”</p><p>Ellie gulped. “3 feat I could drown in?” </p><p>“I thought I made it clear that I don’t like to repeat myself.”</p><p>Damn. Ellie was at a loss and she was horrified. She had been in waste up water before but being as sensitive as she was to things like that she had no idea how long she could stay in. Especially in heated water. Leaving was an option but Miss Glamour may kick her out of the mansion and she did not want to run into Steelbeak again, even if it meant risking her life.</p><p>She walked as slow as possible over to the hot tub and practically fell over getting in before sitting down. Her shoulders were just above the water and she was about to metaphorically shit herself. </p><p>Gloria chuckled. Ellie heard but didn’t look at her.</p><p>“Right. Okay so who would like to start?” Glamour asked the two of them. </p><p>Ellie tilted her head. “Start what?” </p><p>“I called for a spa day because I want to hear more about the tea you two started over the dinner table.”</p><p>Ellie didn’t know what that expression meant but she figured she was referring to the fight. “I would prefer to avoid that subject.” </p><p>“I don’t mind talking about it, Miss Glamour.” Gloria was such a suck up.</p><p>Glamour smiled devilishly. The tea was about to start. Hell yeah. “This is why you are an IT. Why don’t you start, dear?” </p><p>Gloria smiled back at her before starting. “Well, I literally slept with a knife under my pillow which was interesting. It’s so much fun getting death threats from family members, wouldn’t you agree Miss Glamour?” Gloria asked sarcastically. </p><p>“Of course.” She looked over at Ellie, hinting she needed to say something. </p><p>Ellie had no idea what to say to that, especially when she wasn’t focusing completely with being in a hot tub and all. “Umm…” Her voice was quiet, clearly showing how nervous she was around Miss Glamour since the woman was definitely not on her side. “After my... surgery while I was recovering in a hospital in… Asia,” She said unsurely, forgetting part of what Gloria’s lie was yesterday. It was also hard forming a lie that was also the truth at the same time. Ellie would have to tell the story by wording it differently so the whole robot thing was lowkey. But she didn’t doubt for a moment that Gloria would be willing to give it away. “Gloria made it very clear that she was not happy having a sister with the personality I have and would prefer someone else who is more like her. That is why I started the argument last night. I was very upset. Am very upset.” </p><p>“What, so you decided to wait until we were here to just blow up in front of everyone? I don’t understand why you didn’t just talk to me about it personally.”</p><p>Glamour decided to sit back and watch since the two were starting to take the conversation from here. They didn’t need a referee anymore.</p><p>Ellie balled her fists on her lap and shut her eyes. “I wasn’t aware of it until Mark told me just before dinner, so the hurt I was feeling was new. I’m...dealing with other things right now so it didn’t help.” </p><p>“What other things?”</p><p>“Back at the camp…” She bit her lip for a second, not wanting to bring it up. But Gloria deserved to know. Even if she didn’t believe her. “Gyro and I had to steal medicine from Steelbeak’s office for both you and Mark. I took all the blame and because of that he almost killed me. I felt so much pain, physically. I tried to forget about it because we’ve been through other things so it was just another hurdle to cross. But the memory and negative thoughts won’t leave me. He pried Boyd away from me and did the same thing to him before rising to power right in front of us. All I wanted to do was protect him and I failed. And when you and Gyro pointed it out…” She decided to stop there. “I do not wish to go into more detail. But you not liking me for me just reminded me of how worthless I am, even as a mother.” </p><p>“Shit, Ellie I didn’t know that you went through that with Steelbeak. I’m really sorry that you had to go through that and I can speak for Gyro when I say thank you for looking out for him. But the reason why we even brought Boyd into the argument to begin with is because of the miscarrage. I know you guys didn’t know about it when you got him but it still happened the same day, making it really painful to watch. I can speak for myself and Gyro again when I say that we are both pretty pissed. Pissed that we lost our child. Pissed at Mark for leaving Boyd to even begin with only to get him back with not even a slap on the wrist for being a shitty dad. Pissed that we have to suffer while we watch you three have the family that we were going to have.”</p><p>“I know… I tried to comfort you but I was too caught up in myself and I’m sorry. I wish I could’ve prevented that from happening. I still feel like it was my fault because I promised you.” She finally looked up at Gloria. “But I thought we were close at the camp after our conversation on the train, but we weren’t. I suppose after the miscarriage, when you started talking to me less than you had before, I felt like I was just a tool for you and when the tool didn’t work you just threw it out.” She twitched for a second from being in the water for so long but continued on, hoping they didn’t notice. “I just do not understand why I’m not good enough. Why did you not want the real me back? Is it because you really don’t view me as my own person? You said I’m not meant to be sentient. Would you prefer it if I wasn’t?” </p><p>“No! God you have every right to be sentient I was just yelling in the heat of the moment. I know I sound like an asshole but I guess I liked the other version of you because you were like me more. You were a crazy bitch and it was so much fun to hang out with you! And just because I liked the other version of you doesn’t mean that I hate the real you. It’s just that our personalities are very different and that isn’t a bad thing.”</p><p>“I know. You’re right. I’m just bland and it’s hard to think for myself. I can’t think for myself sometimes because I wasn’t supposed to. That’s why I needed Boyd. I needed a command to follow or I would go insane and taking care of a child was a long term solution. I know I told you that on the train, however, protecting you at the camp wasn’t even a long term solution for that. I’m just pathetic.” Ellie said. “But why would you say we’re friends if you would simply rather not speak to me?” </p><p>“Well, I’ve never met someone like you before so I had no idea how to act around you and to talk to you. And I still don’t know but I’m willing to try. It was wrong of me to not talk to you about this sooner and I’m sorry. I guess I didn’t really think about it.”</p><p>“Listen, about what I said last night. When I said I wanted you to experience more pain,” Ellie let her eyes drift away, not wanting to make eye contact because of how guilty she felt. “I did not mean that. I was just so upset that I stopped thinking, but that isn’t an excuse. You’ve experienced too many bad things and I downplayed it. No one knowing what Steelbeak did to me started eating away and I let it out on you even though you had no idea. I even blamed you for not knowing, but how could you have? I suppose the whole experience changed me, even if it lasted only for a few minutes. It was just so painful and I was so scared because I was about to die. I was so mad that you escaped death so easily when I had to experience it twice. I felt it was unfair but that doesn’t mean your experiences were any less traumatic, I was just too stupid to realize that.” She admitted. “I wasn’t going to kill you. I just wanted to scare you and make you feel how scared I was. I’m sorry.” </p><p>“I’m sorry too, Ellie. I should’ve been nicer to you, especially since you were always there looking out for me while we were still in the camp. If you’re okay with it, I would love to be your friend for real now. And to make it up to you, Gyro and I can babysit Boyd at any time if you and Mark ever need it.”</p><p>“Thank you, Gloria. That’s very kind and I will take you up on your offer sometime.” Ellie smiled. “I would love to be true friends too. It’d be nice to be around each other without Mark and Gyro there all the time.” </p><p>“God, I know they are the worst…” Miss Glamour finally spoke up. As much as she loved hearing tea, she was happy that the two of them made up. “So are you two fine now?”</p><p>Miss Glamour didn’t understand most of the argument and got lost, but she figured it was just a weird way they communicated. Sister things. And spicy tea that was good as hell.</p><p>Ellie forgot Glamour was there and nearly jumped out of her robo skin. Miss Glamour was asking if their sister relationship was fine but Ellie thought she meant in general. The water was starting to get to her and she twitched again against her will. “No. I am not fine. I should probably get out of the water.” </p><p>Gloria cringed, remembering about how Ellie being in water wasn’t the best idea. “Me too. Let’s all get massages or something!”</p><p>Miss Glamour clapped her hands together. “That is an IT! You read my mind.”</p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>Mark adjusted his golfing hat and killer shades as he approached both Gyro and Falcon at the mini golf course. Boyd followed behind him. “Gentlemen.” He greeted. </p><p>Falcon glared at him, a way too small of a golding club in hand. “Beaks.” </p><p>Boyd waved at the Gyro and Falcon. “Hi! I’m really excited for mini golf!” He tugged at Mark’s shirt. “Daddy! Today is so fun so far! A Pop Tart and now this? Wow!”</p><p>“Uhhh yeah… don’t tell you mother about the Pop Tart.” He patted his back. “Anyway. Just so you know, I am the number 1 mini golfer in the Glamour mansion. I know this course like the back of my head so you two are #screwed. Kay? Kay.” </p><p>Gyro scoffed. “Go put your mouth on the curb.”</p><p>“Ummmmm I dunno what that means sooooo no.” Mark walked away from him with Boyd following. “I’m going to go first because I can!”</p><p>Falcon looked down at Gyro. “Do you hate this man as much as I do?” </p><p>“Don’t get me started.” Gyro muttered. </p><p>“Alright, bitchesssss!” He swung the golf club, completely missing the ball and hitting Gyro in the face. He looked behind him. “#oops. I guess that’s a hole in one though. Anyways, I’ll just go again.”</p><p> </p><p>“No you don’t!” Graves picked him up and threw him to the side. “That was your turn and you failed just like you do in life.” <br/>“OWWWWWW! RUDEEEEEE! I SAID I WAS GOING FIRST!” Mark threw a fit but he stayed seated in the grass.</p><p>Falcon didn’t respond, giving the ball a light tap. It sailed through the windmill straight into the hole. </p><p>Mark slammed his fist on the grass. “YOU CHEATED!” </p><p>“How did I cheat? You saw me hit the ball.” </p><p>“I dunno! You’re a spy so you cheated!” </p><p>“He didn’t, Mark.” Gyro said, still rubbing his cheek where the club made contact. Lucky for Gyro, Mark was super weak so it didn’t kill him. “You just suck that badly.” </p><p>Mark scoffed. “Fine, muffin-top-chicken-slut! You go!” </p><p>Gyro shot him a nasty glare “What did you just call me?! And choose your next words carefully, Beaks, because I’m holding a golf club!”</p><p>Mark shrugged. “I don’t have to say anything, just look in the mirror.” </p><p>“Oh I will! And when I do, I’ll see the winner of today’s mini golf challenge!”</p><p>“You? Winner? HA! Whatever you say, slut. You’re not the billionaire here.” Mark leaned back on the grass, sun-tanning until they went to the next course.</p><p>“Quit calling me a slut! What is wrong with you!” </p><p>“You didn’t use protection sooooo….. You a slut.” </p><p>That only pissed Gyro off more and he took all of that anger onto the golf ball, making it fly really far away. Like, too far. He totally missed the 20 foot away hole and that ball would never be seen again.</p><p>“Nice shot, slut.”</p><p>“Yeah! Nice shot!” Boyd said enthusiastically, thinking it was a compliment. Boyd sat next to his dad and shot Gyro a big thumbs up.</p><p>“You tell him, Boyd! But, um, don’t sit next to me. It’s your turn. Win for your pops.” </p><p>“Okay! I’ll try my best.” There was a smaller golden club that was Boyd’s size. He went straight to the start of the course and got a hole in one with ease. He sat back down next to Mark like it was nothing.</p><p>Falcon gasped. “WHAT?!”</p><p>“That’s my boy!” Mark gave Boyd a high five. “He’s my son so that’s a point for me.” </p><p>Gyro stomped his clown foot. “NO IT ISN’T!” </p><p>“YES IT ISSSSSSSS!” </p><p>Falcon groaned, heading over to the next course. Gyro and Mark continued to squabble until Boyd got up too. </p><p>He looked up at Mark. “Can I go first, dad?”</p><p>“No. Daddy’s first. Winners are always first.” He huffed on his sunglasses, cleaning them before placing them back onto his sexy face.</p><p>“If I’m not a winner… then what am I?” Boyd frowned. </p><p>“Second best.”</p><p>Boyd’s face lit up again. “Okay!” </p><p>Mark shoved Falcon out of the way this time. “Move, Gravsie! Beaks comes first!” He wiggled his butt, adjusting his feet before taking the shot. The ball fell into the mini river you were supposed to shoot the ball over. “FUCK!” </p><p>“It’s okay, dad! I got it!” Boyd ran over to pick the ball up before placing it in the hole. “Hole in 1!”</p><p>“YAYYYYYY!” Mark pumped his fists in the air. “Write that down, Falcon. Ya boi is winning.” </p><p>“I’m not writing that down.” </p><p>“FINE! THEN I WILL!” Mark put a point on his phone notes. </p><p>Falcon went next and got a hole in one again. “Better write that down, Beaks.”</p><p> </p><p>“Okay!” Mark put a 0 next to Falcon’s name along with a frowny face. “You’re up, slut!”</p><p>“Mark, I swear. I’m warning you.” </p><p>“What are you going to do, Muffin-top? Kill me? When your twink ass stomps a fly it just walks on out from under your clown feet.” </p><p>Gyro screamed, pushing Mark over the fence that was a border between the course and the chemical blue water. You know the kind at. That water’s only at mini golf courses. </p><p>While Gyro was in the motion of pushing Mark, his own ball fell into the lake, costing him his turn for the round.</p><p>“HEY!!!! MY GUCCI PLAID PINK SUIT!”</p><p>Mark climbed out, tackling Gyro back as Falcon watched with a big smile.</p><p>Boyd skipped on over to the hole and got a hole in 1 again before heading to the next course. And then the next. And then the next. And then the next. Finally coming back after about 30 minutes. Mark and Gyro were still on the ground and Falcon was leaning against the fence.</p><p>“Hey, daddy! I got a hole in 1 on all 30 courses. Did I win?”</p><p>Both Mark and Gyro stopped, looking over at Boyd. Mark took this oppurtunity to push Gyro off and stand up. “Yep you won! But because you’re my son the winning streak goes to me!”</p><p>“Okay!”</p><p> </p><p>Falcon pinched in between his eyes. “Mark. Why are you this way? Even with children?”</p><p>“Excuse me? Those are the rules of golf! Everyone knows that!”</p><p>Boyd walked over to Falcon. “Mister, you can cook, right?”</p><p>He raised a brow. “Yes?”</p><p>“Daddy said I can have a lot of sugar today so can you bake me a cake?”</p><p>Mark pumped his fists in the air again. “HELL YEAH! WINNERS CAKE! LET’S GO, SLAVE!” Mark, not realizing how horrible that statement was, nudged Graves before running back to the mansion, leaving Boyd behind. </p><p>Boyd looked up at Falcon, awaiting an answer.</p><p>He sighed. “Fine.”</p><p>Gyro scoffed. “Frosting has dairy in it.”</p><p>“No one cares, Gyro.” Falcon shot back.<br/>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0024"><h2>24. Deathblade</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Ellie knocked on Gloria and Gyro’s suite door with Mark and Boyd behind her. </p><p>“Ummm, like, are you sure you want them to babysit Boyd tonight? After you and Gloria’s “cat fight”? That bitch wanted to slice youuuu. #wack.” </p><p>“Please stop with the cursing in front of Boyd.” She warned. “But yes. We made up at the spa today with Miss Glamour’s assistance. I believe we are finally close friends. Permanently this time around.” </p><p>Mark looked up from his phone. “...what the hell is up with women?”</p><p>Gloria opened the door and smiled at all of them (except Mark because fuck him) “Hey, Ellie!”</p><p>“Hello! I hope you and Gyro are having a wonderful evening.” She smiled back. </p><p>“We are, thanks… Is there something that you guys needed orrrrr…?” Gloria trailed off. She wasn’t sure why all three of them were here.</p><p>“We came by to take you up on your offer to babysit Boyd.” Ellie nudged Boyd forward.</p><p>“Oh! I mean… okay?” She did offer but she figured it would be something to do in the future… not 5 hours later! “Why do you need us to babysit him? Do you guys have plans?”</p><p>Mark rolled his eyes at Gloria. Were they friends that promised to stop fighting? Yes. But whatever. Mark was an asshole to everyone. “Yeahhhhh? That’s none of your #business.” </p><p>Ellie was aware Mark’s comment was really stupid and decided to answer for the both of them. “We have not had time alone together for a while and Boyd seems to really enjoy your presence.” </p><p>“Okay sure! Is there anything I need to know about Boyd? Like his bedtime or something?”</p><p>“Let the kid do whatever he wants.” Mark shrugged. </p><p>Ellie eyed him. “Absolutely not.” She looked back at Gloria. “His bedtime is at 8 post meridiem. And he needs vegetables included for dinner.” </p><p>“Alright that’s easy. Anything else?”</p><p>Mark shook his head “nah” but Ellie took her time to think. “No Pop Tarts or any other sweets. He gets extremely hyper on sugar and could possibly damage himself or someone else. Or very expensive objects.” </p><p>Mark looked up at Ellie with an “oh shit” expression. “Wait forreal?”</p><p>She nodded. “Yes. I just know.” Mother radar for plot. Also she had done research and found that was common for most children, especially for Boyd since he was built to be exactly like a child. “Well, we will be off. Thank you so much, Gloria. We should “hang out”, as friends say, sometime in the near future.” </p><p>“No problem, Ellie! Have fun on your dateeeeeee!” Gloria sang the word “date” before waving them off. She opened the door wider so Boyd could come in. “Hey Boyd!”</p><p>He scuttled in before spinning in circles to look around the room. “Woooowwwwww, Aunt Gloria! Your suite looks just like mine!” </p><p>Gloria closed the door behind him and watched his little chaotic body run around. “Did you have sugar or something?”</p><p>“I had a lot of pop tarts and an entire cake today!” </p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>“Wow! Your mother has such a large variety of novels.” Ellie clasped her hands together as the two roamed around the private library. She had insisted on going to find picture books for Boyd even though the whole point of having him be babysat was so they could be romantic. That’s what Mark had thought anyway but Ellie must’ve been on another page. Now he was stuck in a dusty library, sneezing and coughing. Some of the dust was even getting on his phone so his selfies looked all messed up. His mom never read so why she had a library was a mystery. Probably because it was a mansion aesthetic. </p><p>“God this place is soooooooooo boringgggg!” Mark whined. There was a bouchie ass couch for him to sprawl out on while Ellie roamed around.</p><p>“Why do you say that? I thought reading was a form of entertainment.” She walked over, placing a few picture books she had already gotten on the coffee table in front of the sofa. Boyd, although immature for his age at times, probably was a bit too old for picture books but Mark didn’t say anything because he was too lazy. </p><p>“Yeah for nerds!”</p><p>She sat next to him, crossing her legs like a lady uwu. “I suppose I am a nerd then because I like to read novels in my database at night when you are sleeping. I very much enjoy Wattlebird Shakespeare.” </p><p>“Who the fuck is Shakespeare?” He looked up from his phone for a minute.</p><p>“A playwright and novelist from the 1500s.” </p><p>“Ugh! BORRRRIIIIINGGGGG!” Mark sat up from the couch “C’mon! Can’t we do anything else while those two idiots are babysitting Boyd?”</p><p>Ellie gave him a confused looked. “Well, what do you want to do then?” </p><p>“Anything that doesn’t involve Shakespeare.”</p><p>“Hmmmm.” She leaned back. “What about Haryana Hemingway?” </p><p>“I dunno who that is either but no.”</p><p>Ellie shrugged before getting up to grab a book for herself. She wanted to hold one for once. It was a textbook of art history. Leonardo Duck Vinci, Vulture Van Gogh, you get the idea. She was completely content sitting in silence next to Mark while reading. Although she had already read this educational book in her database before, it was interesting to see it in person. Ellie liked the texture of the pages. </p><p>Mark did that awful cliche where he yawned and put his arm around his girlfriend. You know the one. “Ellie, babe, seriously? There isn’t anything else you would rather be doing right now? Now that Boyd is away…”</p><p>Ellie wasn’t picking up what Mark was laying down, not being in that mindset at the moment, and continued reading. “No. I am rather content.”</p><p>Mark huffed and took the book out of her hands so she would look at him. “Are you sure?” </p><p>She blanked. “Well, that was rather rude of you. Yes I am sure.” </p><p>Mark ignored that and decided to just go for it. “Awwww! You don’t even want a little kiss?” He fake poueted and wrapped both of his arms around her, pulling her in. His hands slowly traced down her back and she shivered before coming to an understanding of what he wanted to do. </p><p>Ellie smiled and leaned her face in, even closer than before. “Oh, I am fond of that idea.” She whispered as seductive as she could manage. The attempt was pretty bad but it worked on Mark anyway because... well, because he’s Mark. </p><p>He smirked.</p><p>They were just about to kiss until Miss Glamour, the queen herself, came out from the other side of the library. Yes, she was there the whole time. “Hello darlings!” Her tone was surprisingly very chipper and she was holding a book in her hands.</p><p>Mark let go of Ellie and groaned once again “MOM! GOD! LEAVE ME ALONE!”</p><p>Miss Glamour flicked the side of his head and decided to sit in the middle of them, keeping the closed book on her lap. “Ellie, would you like to see some of Mark’s childhood photos?”</p><p>Whatever anger Ellie was feeling about being interrupted was gone immediately. She lit up. “Yes! I would love to!” </p><p>“MOM! NO!” Mark tried to pry the book from her but she just flicked him again, with her sharp nails. “OW!”</p><p>She opened up to the beginning of the photo album. It was nothing but newborn baby photos of Mark. Most of them he was naked in.</p><p>Ellie laughed, finding it hysterical. “Mark, you were such an unattractive baby!” </p><p>Miss Glamour laughed along with her. “Yes he was.”</p><p>“MOM!” Mark blushed in embarrassment. He scooted as far away as he could on the couch, crossing his arms. He was still watching them look through the photo album just so he could see what photos they were going to laugh at next.</p><p>Miss Glamour chatted to Ellie a while, pointing to each photo. “Here’s his 3rd birthday party, and this was the first time I gave him a bowl cut, it was an IT look at the time, honey. Oh! And here’s his first halloween trick or treating by himself with other older millionaire neighborhood children. He wanted to be a princess, picked it out himself.” </p><p>“NO I DIDN’T! YOU MADE ME BE A PRINCESS! GOD!”</p><p>Ellie looked over at him and smiled. “I can tell by your tone that you are lying.” She turned back to his mother and asked. “What about his teenage years?” </p><p>Mark’s eyes widened as he tried to pry the photo album away from his mother again. “Mom. Please no. Remember I gave you $50,000 to NEVER speak of…that!”</p><p>“50,000 is what I pay for a water bottle. You should’ve bribed me with more.” With that said she skipped a few pages to get to the teenage years. It was nothing but Mark wearing awful early 2000s eyeliner and black outfits. He wasn’t smiling in any of the photos.</p><p>Ellie leaned in closer. “I did not know Mark had a brother.”</p><p>“No no that is Mark! He went through an odd phase where he wanted everyone to start calling him Deathblade.”</p><p>Mark threw his hoodie over his head and covered his face with his hands.</p><p>Ellie looked at the picture, then at Mark, and repeated a few times. She didn’t know how to react. “...Deathblade?” She chuckled. “Oh, I understand. He was attempting to be emo, correct?” </p><p>Mark groaned “God stoppppppppp!”</p><p>“Yeah it was something stupid like that. He only listened to this awful rock and roll music and would cry all the time.”</p><p>Ellie’s laughter stopped. Not because Glamour mentioned Mark crying, but because an idea came to mind. She pointed to one of the edgy photos. “May I keep one?” </p><p>Glamour took the photo out of the plastic sleeve and handed it to her. “There are 5 copies of this exact photo album. Take all the photos you’d like.”</p><p>“MOOOOMMMMMMMMMM!”</p><p>“Shut up!”</p><p>Ellie nodded in appreciation before taking the album to take as many photos as she could, including the naked baby ones. “Gloria would love to see these, I’m sure!” </p><p>“Oh NO! No no no no NOOOO! You are NOT showing ANYONE this!” He yelled at both Glamour and Ellie.</p><p>“Why not?” She held up a photo of him with eyeliner running down his face. He must’ve been crying before the photo. “I find it rather humorous.” </p><p>“Well I don’t!”</p><p>“Markus quit being such a little bitch. You’re ruining the moment.”</p><p>“You ruined OUR moment.” He gestured to both him and Ellie. “This is the one night we have had alone in like FOREVER and you’re ruining EVERYTHIIIIIIIIING! GOD!” </p><p>Glamour laughed at him “Whatever you say, Deathblade…” She turned back to the photo album and continued to flip through it with Ellie.</p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>8 p.m. had finally rolled around after hours of Boyd running around like a maniac and breaking a few expensive vases. He eventually tired himself out and was currently laying in bed, waiting for Gloria to tuck him in. He started to wonder if he was too old for that but shrugged it off. He liked being tucked in. </p><p>“Alright, I’m not sure when your parents are going to come and pick you up but you should probably get some rest. You’ve had a… big day.” Gloria sat on the edge of the bed and tucked him.</p><p>He yawned, the sugar crash hitting hard. “Thanks, Aunt Gloria.” Boyd looked up at her. “Can you stay by me when I sleep so I don’t have nightmares?” After the other day, nightmares had been popping up every night. About Steelbeak. But one someone was next to him, they seemed to subside. </p><p>“Awwww! Of course!” She kissed the top of his head and stayed next to him on the side of the bed.</p><p>Gyro walked over, arms crossed. “Hey, kid. Before you go to sleep…” </p><p>Boyd opened his eyes again. “Huh?” </p><p>“Your dad is so cool. I want to teach you a complimentary name to call him.” </p><p>“Really?! What is it?!” </p><p>“Parrot bitch.” </p><p>Gloria smirked at him and backed him up “Yeah Boyd! Your dad would love to hear you call him that from now on! He may pretend to hate it and tell you to stop but don’t!”</p><p>Boyd smiled. “Okay! I believe you!” </p><p>“And…” Gyro bent down. “What do we call me from now on?” </p><p>“The better scientist!” </p><p>“Damn right.” </p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>Scrooge and Glomgold snuck down the hall. Neither of them had known which one it was because the damn capitol building was so large. Even Glomgold didn’t know because he was just that stupid. </p><p>“So, ummmm…” Glomgold whispered for once in his life. “What’s the plan? I wasn’t listening.” </p><p>Scrooge had explained the plan multiple times, and twice more when he was picking the lock and knocked out the God Bots guarding their cell. How? I dunno. Just because he’s Scrooge McDuck. “I am not repeating myself. Just stay quiet and follow my lead.”</p><p>“UGHHHH! FIIINNNNNEEEEEE!” </p><p>“Shut up!” Scrooge yelled through gritted teeth. Voices could be heard up ahead. It was hard to tell who it was, if they even knew who it was that is.</p><p>“WHY THERE’S NO ONE NEARBY!” </p><p> </p><p>Scrooge covered his mouth. “I hear people ahead. Shhhh!” </p><p>Glomgold pushed him away. “NO!” He cockroach scuttled past Scrooge, pushing him against the wall with his stubby little body. “I’M OUT OF HERE! I DON’T NEED YOO ANYMORE!” Our boy turned the corner and ran right into Steelbeak, God Bots standing behind him. “WOT?!” </p><p>The Guard Bots knew what was going down and immediately turned the corner to obtain Scrooge. There were a good lot of them so Scrooge karate kicking them wouldn’t go so well this time around. </p><p>Steelbeak grimaced, picking Glomgold up by the collar. “What are you doing outside your cell?” </p><p>“UGH! PUT ME DOWN! I’M BUSY ESCAPING!” Glomgold spat, wiggling in the air. “WOT ARE YOO DOING?!” Glomgold figured that the ONLY way out of Steelbeak’s grip was to lick his hands but his little tongue couldn’t reach so he just looked like an idiot that was lowkey turned on. I’m sorry that image is put into your head but Glomgold is just that dumb. </p><p>“I was on the way to an important business meeting regarding my rule, but I see I need to attend to this situation now.” He slammed Glomgold on the ground and he flattened like a cockroach. Steelbeak snapped his fingers. “God Bots! Now is the perfect time to test it out.”</p><p> </p><p>The remaining God Bots behind Glomgold held him down, one putting a steel collar around his neck. </p><p>‘WOT?! I’M NOT A DOG! I’M A DUCK YOU BLIND FUCK!” Whenever Glomgold is on the ground, it takes him an ungodly amount of time to get up and the God Bots holding him did not help. He looked like he was making a snow angel on the ground as the God Bots snapped on the steel collar.</p><p>One was put on Scrooge as well who was now being held in front of Steelbeak. He didn’t struggle because he didn’t really give a shit. He would figure something out later. At least he thought.</p><p>Steelbeak snapped, signalling the Bots to release them. They did just that but before either could make a move, Steelbeak pressed a button. </p><p>Both Scrooge and Glomgold seized on the ground immediately.</p><p>“OY! WOT?!” </p><p>Steelbeak towered over them. “These collars shock you if you do anything wrong or try to escape, they have trackers, record all of your conversations. The list goes on.” He smirked. “But the best part is they are indestructible. There is no key.”</p><p>“WOT?!”</p><p>Scrooge rolled his eyes, knowing they were indeed fucked. </p><p>“Take them back to their cells.” Steelbeak turned to continue heading to his meeting as the God Bots dragged them back from behind him. His next test subjects would be Ellie and her little friends. </p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p>
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<a name="section0025"><h2>25. Beaks of Steel, Your Local Charity</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Mark yawned before opening his crusty eyes. Wiping his little eye boogers away, the blurry figure next to him on the couch became clear. It was Ellie. She had gone back to reading the art history textbook after hours of looking at photo albums of Mark’s childhood last night. Even after his mother had left, he couldn’t pry it away from her. She was so invested in all of his cringey photos that she refused to get romantic again, saying there were plenty of other times they could do that but only a limited amount of time she could look at the albums. Mark got pissed like the little hoe he was and fell asleep on the sofa after scrolling through tumblr pages that his adoring fans had made to praise him. He had to get his ego from somewhere.</p><p>Since the cushions had shifted a tad, Ellie knew he had woken up. Yet, she hadn’t taken her eyes off the textbook. “Good morning.” </p><p>“Sup.” He sat up and started whining immediately. “God, I fell asleep on the couch like some commoner. My back hurtssssssss.” </p><p>Ellie conveniently finished the textbook after his complaint and was able to give him her full attention. “I’m sure a massage could rid you of your qualm.” She smiled. </p><p>He gasped, placing his hands on the side of his face like Edvard Munch’s “The Scream”, except he was happy not horrified. Close enough. “You’d be willing to give me a massage?! That’d make up for the lame date!” </p><p>“No, your mother has professionals at the spa for that. I need to go retrieve Boyd from Gloria and Gyro’s quarters.” </p><p>Mark threw his head back on the Gucci couch and groaned. “Oh my god, you’re laaaammmmeeeeeeeee!” </p><p>Ellie smiled. For some reason she started to find his negative personality and complaints more charming lately. Or it was just a coping mechanism for how annoying he was. “I’ll see you at breakfast.” She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek to make him somewhat happy before putting the textbook and albums away (though keeping some of the photos obviously), finally leaving Mark to continue whining on the couch. </p><p>Conveniently and, as always, for plot reasons, the suite was fairly close to the library. Ellie felt partially guilty for leaving Boyd at Gloria’s all night, but that was a part of babysitting, wasn’t it? She probably should’ve told Gloria that the time of Boyd’s retrieval was unknown. </p><p>She lightly knocked on the door, not wanting to cause too much of a ruckus at 7 a.m. </p><p>It took a minute but Gloria finally answered the door, rubbing her eyes. She was still in her pj’s and her hair was a mess. Ellie wanted to make a comment about how not put together she looked but decided that was rude since Mark looked like that every morning too. </p><p>The room behind her was still very dark with the curtain closed so she exited, closing the door behind her to chat with Ellie in the hallway. “Dang, Ellie. You’re here early.” </p><p>“Good morning. I am sorry if I woke you up.” </p><p>Gloria shrugged. “It’s cool. It’s probably better that I didn’t sleep in that late anyway. Boyd and Gyro are still sleeping.” She pointed toward the door. “Speaking of Boyd, I didn’t expect you to leave him here all night. Holy shit, dude. That kid is wack! What the hell were you and Mark doing all night.” Gloria didn’t intend to get in Ellie’s personal romance business but she spat the question out without thinking first. </p><p>“Oh, I’ll show you.” Ellie pulled photos out of her dress pocket because if she was going to wear a million dollar dress it better have fucking pockets. “I got distracted when Miss Glamour started showing me pictures of Mark’s childhood.”</p><p>“WHAT?!” Gloria snatched the photos, flipping through them at an alarming rate. Her eyes widened when she got to the emo picture. “Oh my fucking god. This can’t be real.” </p><p>Ellie didn’t need to see the photo to know what she was talking about and laughed. “It is. I believed it was his brother at first but apparently he went through an “edgy” phase, as his mother put it. He wanted to go by the name “Deathblade”.” </p><p>“NO WAY!” Gloria nearly shit herself as she keeled over laughing. “Ellie, you need to let me keep this!” She held up the photo, almost dropping it. “I will pay you! I can’t live without this!” </p><p>Ellie pondered her request. “I’m not sure. Mark would be rather upset.”</p><p>“Well, he makes me upset all the time.”</p><p>Damn she was right. Ellie nodded. “That is very fair. Miss Glamour has multiple copies so take as many photos as you please.”</p><p>There was no way Gloria wasn’t going to leave the ugly naked baby photo behind either. “Oh man, Gyro is gonna mcFREAKING lose it! We could totally blackmail Mark with this!” </p><p>Ellie regretted her decision, already envisioning Mark’s mental breakdown. “Please don’t.” </p><p>“Relax. I’ll only blackmail him for money!” Gloria flicked her wrist in a “don’t worry about it” motion. “And here,” She handed 50 bucks to Ellie she had with her 24/7 for emergencies. Was that never mentioned in the fanfiction before? Oopsie. Gloria is always prepared, bitches. “You can’t really buy anything with this since it’s like a dictatorship or whatever, but go ahead and take it for your trouble.”</p><p>“That’s very generous of you.” She smiled. Ellie never really understood the concept of money but appreciated it anyway. </p><p>“Alright, well I’ll go get Boyd so we can go get some breakfast together! And I’ll put the photos next to Gyro so he can see them when he wakes up.” She smirked. </p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>A few days had passed after the event you had just read above and Steelbeak was still making Duckburg more of a living hell than it already was. A large sign outside the city was being put up that read “Welcome to SteelVille.” </p><p>Steelbeak wasn’t very creative. </p><p>I’ll run you through what this homie had going on. What Glomgold had failed to do was keep the local government functioning, it had become more of an anarchy rather than a dictatorship if you didn’t count the mandatory executions and cult like church services, so Steelbeak’s first goal was to get the city back up and running. No, he didn’t come up with that himself, his God Bot political advisors did. </p><p>But it wasn’t going to go back to how Duckburg, now SteelVille, used to be. No no no. This was going to be some communist shit because Steelbeak is evil so obviously he isn’t going to be a good leader. Duh. </p><p>He would keep the mandatory church services and weekly executions, but so far he was having his God Bot army get ahold of every citizen to put the shock collars on, the same ones he had put on Scrooge and Glomgold. He had decided the collar’s official name would be the “Steel Collar”. That wasn’t very creative either, but it had his name engraved on each and every one so that was cool. </p><p>The collars would be used to keep an eye on every citizen. God Bots would monitor their conversations, actions, coordinates, so on and so forth. Each person would be assigned a mandatory job and if they did not follow through, it was execution time baby (or torture camp. Both were fun options). The jobs he was forcing people to do first was sewage management that was desperately needed and people building large Golden statues of him all over town. Reopening stores and getting electricity up and running again wasn’t as important to him at the moment. He just wanted to make his power clear and also have the city stop smelling of literal shit. </p><p>At the moment, Steelbeak sat in “Godgold’s” old office and sipped on pitch black coffee, almost as dark as his himbo soul. He looked out the large window, admiring the smoke rising up from the poor and lower class parts of the city he told his God Bots to blow up just because a part of him liked chaos, even if he was trying to make the city better in his own twisted way. The dude was a bit counter intuitive. </p><p>A knock at the door, as you expected, interrupting his therapeutic moment. “What?” He mumbled. </p><p>A God Bot entered, giving a salute to his master before speaking. “Lord Steelbeak, there seems to be some protestors outside.”</p><p>Steelbeak raised a brow. “Protestors?”</p><p>“Yes. It seems they are still believers of Glomgold. They don’t believe you are the true god.”</p><p>“Show me.”</p><p>The God Bot escorted him to the window and pointed downward. Sure enough, a small group of people, about 8 or so, marched back and forth, with poorly made signs, below the capitol building’s steps. </p><p>Instead of scowling, Steelbeak only smirked. “I bet they think they’re so clever. Trying to make a difference and stand up for the stupid Scottish man.” </p><p>“They aren’t clever sir. They are disrespecting you.”</p><p>“I was being sarcastic, shit stick!” He shot back. The Got Bot saluted him again.</p><p>“Sir, yes, sir! I apologize, Lord Steelbeak!” </p><p>Steelbeak continued to watch the protestors and it’s onlookers, his smirk turning into a malicious smile. </p><p>“Would you like them to be imprisoned and executed, me Lord?”</p><p>Yeah, Steelbeak lowkey liked being treated like a king. </p><p>“Nooo…” He thought for a moment, trying to think of something 10x more evil than what Glomgold would do. He was more creative than that stupid fat roach of an old man. “Obtain the protestors and they’re onlookers. I want their beaks ripped off.” </p><p>The God Bot didn’t respond, not knowing what to say. He needed more clarification from his leader and lord. </p><p>“Rip them right off with no pain killers and replace them with beaks of steel.” He tapped his own. “Then, and only then, they will be sent to the torture camps to work 24/7 before being rehabilitated into society, given the worst jobs possible until the day they die and rot in hell. I want to see if I can get a little bit of fun out of people instead of mere executions all the time.” </p><p>The God Bot nodded before leaving the room. Before he closed the door, Steelbeak cleared his throat.</p><p>“Yes, me lord?”</p><p>“Before you go, are there any updates on the traitors? Ellie, Mark, Gloria, that weird chicken shit and the kid?”</p><p>“There are multiple patrols in the city looking for them. There have been no traces of them so far but we shall continue our search. Bots have started to invade people’s homes and abandoned buildings.”</p><p>“Do you think they escaped the city?”</p><p>The bot shook his head. “No. All exits have been closed off just as you commanded, sir.” </p><p>Steelbeak nodded. “Good.” </p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>Boyd sat on the suite bed, rubbing the dents and exposed wires on his head that had yet to be repaired after Steelbeak had attacked him. Mark wasn’t in the room, he was currently fighting with Gyro about something. Probably about the photos he was being teased about. </p><p>“It hurts, mom.”</p><p> </p><p>She laid a hand on his knee. “I know, I’m sorry. Has it gotten worse?”</p><p>Boyd nodded. “Yeah. A lot. I don’t know why.”</p><p>Ellie frowned.</p><p>“Do you think you can do something about it?”</p><p> </p><p>“I’m not sure…” She trailed off. Yesterday, Boyd had complained about his pain worsening as well and Ellie had searched the house for tools with nothing to pop up. Mark reluctantly told her there was no way for him to get to Waddle, it was too risky. She sighed. “I’ll think of something, Boyd. I promise.” </p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>Gloria hung out in the spa hot tub like the badass bitch she was. She was waiting for Ellie to show up for their girl “hang out” day. Yeah, Ellie couldn’t get in the hot tub, especially after she started twitching when they were in it the other day with Miss Glamour, but she insisted it was fine to hang out there. She could just sit by the hot tub with her feet in when they spoke. </p><p>Gloria didn’t argue because, damn, hot tubs were dank as fuck. She even had cucumbers on her eyes while classical music played softly in the background; living that rich life. </p><p>She heard the door open a few minutes later and didn’t bother to take the cucumbers off. She knew it was Ellie based on how softly the door closed. Miss Glamour would’ve slammed that shit so hard. </p><p>Ellie sat next to her, putting her feet in the hot tub. “Hello, Gloria.” She greeted, sweetly. Gloria couldn’t see her smile but could hear it from her tone.</p><p>“Sup, bitchhhhhh. What’s going on?” </p><p>“Nothing much, I’ve just been reading more textbooks and novels from Miss Glamour’s library. I’ve started to become very interested in reading philosophy, though I don’t understand it, but I find enjoyment in things I don’t understand since I know most things.” She bosted. “What’s “going on” with you?” </p><p>Gloria let out a sick, as in totally fucking cool, laugh. “Bro. I got Mark to pay me a few hundred bucks to stop calling him “Deathblade”. I’m going to do it again in a week or so and up the price. So, yeah, things are going fucking great, dude.” That 50 bucks purchase became such a great investment.</p><p>“I know I have just arrived, but I would like to discuss our next “hang out”.” </p><p>Gloria turned to where she thought Ellie was, cucumbers still on her eyes. “Girllllll, what? Chillax, you just got here. Enjoy the moment.” She put her hands behind her head and leaned back. “I just go with the flow. We have plenty of time to hang out in this Gucci mansion.” </p><p>“I know.” Ellie sighed. “But I was wondering if you wanted to go to Target again.”</p><p>Now that got Gloria’s attention. Her cucumbers fell in the water as she whipped back at Ellie again. “What?! Why?!”</p><p>She shrugged. “You seemed to have enjoyed the last trip there so why not go again?” </p><p>“That was before Steelbeak found out we were in town and then kidnapped us!” She got out of the tub to sit next to Ellie. “Are you feeling alright? Did Mark fuck up your personality again? That bastard.” </p><p>Ellie shook her head and put a hand to her chest. “No. I am still me.”</p><p>“Yeah, well, the Ellie I know would never want to risk her life to go rob a store when she’s being hunted down. Seriously, what’s going on?”</p><p>“Nothing. I just thought it would be fun.” </p><p>“Hm. You do have a point.” Gloria shrugged. “But, nah dude. The situation we got going on in town is a bit more crazy at the moment.” She paused. “Wait. Do you just want to go because you want to impress me or something? You don’t have to act like the other Ellie! I like you for you, I swear!” She laid a hand on her shoulder.</p><p>“I trust you. My reasoning is not that, I promise.” </p><p>“If you say so. But dude, it hurts me to turn you down because robbing is fun as fuck, but it’s just too dangerous.” You knew it was serious if Gloria was turning down something wack and fucking crazy. She would’ve gone anyway if she hadn’t seen how serious Steelbeak was about killing them the other day. Not that she was serious about it before but whatever. Her reasoning was kinda wack too sometimes. “We can just go mini golfing like Gyro and the others did.” She lightly nudged Ellie with her fist. “But I gotta warn you, I take mini golf very seriously.” </p><p>Ellie smiled weakly before sighing. “I know it’s dangerous, Gloria. I’m very aware of that. But I need to get tools for Mark so he can repair Boyd. Target was the only place I can think of to go. Waddle is much too dangerous.”</p><p>“Woah woah woah. Hold up. Did Boyd shut down or something?!”</p><p>“Goodness no!” Ellie waved her hands frantically. “His pain has just been getting worse after what Steelbeak did to him. Since he was built to be exactly like a real child, he is way more sensitive to pain then I am. I can’t stand to see him like that.” </p><p>Gloria sat in silence with her for a few minutes before sighing as well. “Does Mark know about this?”</p><p>“He knows about Boyd’s pain but not about my plan to go to Target. I know he wouldn’t allow me to go if I told him. You’re the only person I trust.” </p><p>That touched Gloria’s wittle heart, even though it wasn’t that big of a compliment to be more trustworthy than Mark. Either way, the plan was still fucking wack. “And there’s no tools in the mansion?”</p><p>“Not even a screwdriver. I assume Miss Glamour only has professionals come over when she needs repairs done.” </p><p>That didn’t surprise Gloria. A queen like Glamour wouldn’t have dingy tools laying around. That wouldn’t fit her aesthetic, not even her garage aesthetic. “You’d seriously be willing to risk your life to get tools for Boyd? We could run into Steelbeak again.” </p><p>“I know. But I’m willing to take the risk.” Ellie leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees. “This is the most idiotic thing I’ve ever wanted to do.”</p><p>“I’m probably a bad influence. But I can’t let you go alone.”</p><p>Ellie looked up at her. “Are you serious? You’ll help me?”</p><p>“Of course! Crazy bitches gotta work together.” She held out her pinky. “And I won’t tell Mark or Gyro. I pinky promise.” </p><p>Ellie took her pinky into her own. “Thank you so much, Gloria. I owe you.”</p><p> </p><p>“Nah, I owe you. 50 dollars wasn’t enough to thank you for giving me some of those photos.” She laughed. </p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p>
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<a name="section0026"><h2>26. The Robbery</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Gloria snuck into the broken window of Target and motioned Ellie to follow. Ellie wondered why they weren’t taking the door that was unlocked but didn’t question it. Gloria was the pro robber here. It should be noted that Gloria wasn’t a robber before her internship, she was just fucking feral.</p><p>The two, not wanting to wear Gucci dresses during a break in, stole some of Mark’s old teenage clothes. Thankfully he had outgrown his emo phase around 11th grade so Ellie was wearing his modern style of a button up shirt and khaki pants (he dressed like a rebulican in highschool too. Ew.) Gloria on the other hand liked that emo look and was killing it with an old pair of ripped black jeans and a My Chemical Romance shirt.</p><p>The glass broke under Gloria’s badass combat boots when she jumped in. She had to help Ellie because Ellie was just a pussy and didn’t want to scratch herself. </p><p>“Okay so what is it we are looking for exactly?” Gloria found a screwdriver on the ground and decided to take it just in case. </p><p>Ellie flushed red, metaphorically, knowing she was about to sound stupid. “I’m actually not exactly sure what Mark uses particularly so let’s just grab as many tools as possible. Maybe a pair of pliers too.” </p><p>“Alright!” </p><p>“Should we split up so we may increase our speed or is that a dull-witted idea?” </p><p>“That might not be the best idea… but if you’re one isle down or something I’m sure it’s fine. We would be able to clear more of Target’s ground faster so we can get back to that Gucci hot tub! Oh yeah, and our boyfriends I guess.”</p><p>Ellie smiled. “It is nice to have some time away from them even if it is during an illegal robbery when we are being hunted down.” She waved for Gloria to follow her before stopping after one step. “I do not know where the tool isle is.” </p><p>“Bitch, you think I know?” </p><p>Ellie shrugged. </p><p>“We’ll just wander dude. I bet it’s by the toilet paper or something lame like that.” </p><p>Gloria and Ellie wandered for about 15 minutes or so, much to Ellie’s disliking, and eventually stumbled across the right aisle. There weren't a lot of tools left considering Glomgold’s rule was more like an anarchy and people just robbed places 24/7 the majority of the time when they were at Camp Godgold. </p><p>Gloria took off Mark’s old bag she had on her. It was black with skulls on it of course. And it had My Chemical Romance and Panic at the Disco pins. “Aight. Let’s just stuff as many tools as possible into the bag.” </p><p>Ellie nodded. “That sounds good.” </p><p>They started grabbing different sizes of screwdrivers, wrenches, and other pneumatic tools. </p><p>While they were doing so, Ellie picked up something with her super robot hearing. It was the sound of someone, or multiple people, stepping on glass. The same glass Gloria had jumped on when she came through the window. “Gloria, did you hear that?” </p><p>“Hear what?” Gloria’s head was inside the metal aisle shelves to see if there is anything that they are missing. It was pretty dark inside the abandoned Target.</p><p>“I could be wrong, but I believe I heard either a single person or group of people enter the premises.” </p><p>“Shit, what?!” She whipped her head around to look at Ellie. “Okay we are leaving now!”</p><p>“We have enough tools. Do you think the emergency exit alarm is off?” </p><p>Gloria started walking towards a back exit “One way to find out. I’m not fucking dealing with God Bots today…”</p><p>Ellie followed closely behind, anxiety building up. She knew this was a very bad idea but it was something she felt the need to do as a mother. But if she got Gloria screwed over along with her that guilt would take awhile to leave, if ever. </p><p>Gloria stopped at the emergency exit before lightly pushing the door open a crack. Nothing happened thankfully. For once it was a good thing there was no electricity. “Kay, let’s bounce.” </p><p>She rammed the door open and they quickly ran outside before closing the door behind them quietly to not bring attention to themselves. </p><p>Turning around, they both froze as a squad of God Bots surrounded them. “Oh goddamnit.” </p><p>Neither had a chance to run as seperate bots knocked them the hell out.</p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>“Give the damn photos back, muffin-top!” Mark attempted to jump trying before slamming into the floor. “OW!” </p><p>“Gloria paid good money for these so they are our property now.” He smirked.</p><p>“I PAID HER BACK! SHE MADE A PROFIT!” </p><p>“YOU PAID HER TO KEEP IT HUSH HUSH, NOT TO GET THE PICTURES BACK!”</p><p> </p><p>“WHATEVER! FUCK YOU!” </p><p>Gyro tucked the photos in his back pocket. “How about you stop yelling at me, Deathblade, and head to dinner. I want to be fashionably late, not late-late.” Gyro started walking toward the dining hall before turning back to Mark who was still face first on the ground. “Actually just stay here and sulk. I want to enjoy my meal this time around.”  </p><p>Mark bounced up and bolted past Gyro, flipping him off. “I’M TELLING ON YOU!!!!!!!!” </p><p>“WHAT ARE YOU?! FIVE?!” </p><p>Miss Glamour sat at the fine dining table, awaiting Mr. Graves prepared meal. She was currently making blog posts. Boyd was beside her, kicking his little legs and talking about how he wanted Pop Tarts for dessert. She was ignoring him because that classy bitch hated children. Including her own. </p><p>Mark was the first one to enter the dining room followed by Boyd and Gyro. He was huffing but ran over to his mother to snitch. “Mommmmmmmm! They took my embarrassing photos! Tell them to give them back!”</p><p>“I know, I gave it to them.” She shoved her son off of her and continued to type into her phone.</p><p>“UGH, FINE!!!!!” He sat down next to Boyd, crossing his arms and pouting. </p><p>“Are you okay, dad?”</p><p>“No! Leave me alone!” He slammed his head on the table and started fake crying for attention.</p><p>Gyro finally came in. He walked the entire time like a civilized man. “Good evening, Miss Glamour.” </p><p>“Hello, fuckface.” She responded. She still wasn’t a fan of Gyro, even if her IT girl was married to him. She finally looked up. “It looks like your wives are going to be late-late. That’s a shame.” </p><p>“What? They weren’t with you?” Gyro looked around the room thinking that that would help anything.</p><p>“No? Why would they be? I had my blog to update, which I am still doing so please stay quiet until dinner is served.” </p><p>Finally Mark looked up, and yes, tears were streaming down his face. He wiped them away. “They went to the spa, like, hours ago for a “girl hang out” or something.”</p><p>Now Gyro was starting to get worried… again! “Yeah, but they would be back by now!”</p><p>Mark picked up what Gyro was laying down. “I can’t believe he’s saying this, but he’s right.” He agreed, speaking to his mother. “Ellie doesn’t like humid environments for long periods of time.” </p><p>Miss Glamour looked up from her phone, rolling her eyes. But that wasn’t visible with her shades. “Let them be. You two are irritating enough as is. I bet they’re fearing dinner because they’ll have to see your ugly mugs again.” She laughed, looking back down at her blog. “Honestly, they are both way out of your league. It is unbelievable. But I suppose “love is love” or whatever they say.”</p><p>Gyro turned to Mark. “Let’s check the library.” </p><p>As much as Mark didn’t want to hang out another second with this dude, he nodded his head. </p><p>They weren’t in the library either.</p><p>Mark finally spoke to Gyro again. “Ummm, like, I think they got fucked over or something.”</p><p>“HOW?! They never left the mansion!”</p><p>“I DUNNO! SHUT THE FUCK UP!”</p><p>“YOU’RE AN IDIOT! I’M CHECKING THE SUITES!”</p><p>“FINE BY ME! I’M GOING TO STUFF MY FACE WITH FOOD, BITCH! AND YES, I AM GOING TO GIVE BOYD A POP TART!” </p><p>____________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>It’s been a few hours since their Target trip and Gloria just woke up in a new environment. Her hands were bound and there was a weird contraption around her neck that she couldn’t quite see. She was in an old small cell by herself, with no memory as to how she got there.</p><p>“HEY WHAT’S THE BIG FUCKING IDEA! ELLIE ARE YOU THERE?!” Gloria tried to break her cuffs but to no avail.</p><p>There was a response, but it wasn’t one she wanted and it sure as hell wasn’t Ellie. The one and only, the evil super villain, Steelbeak, entered the chat, closing the cell door before turning to look at her. He crossed and smirked down at her. “It took a bit longer to find you than I expected. But, oh well. The job is done.” He laughed. </p><p>Gloria shot him a nasty glare “I should’ve known it was you, ugly ass motherfucker! Get me the hell out of here!”</p><p>He shrugged. “If you didn’t know it was me then you’re more of an idiot than I thought. And no.” </p><p>“Where’s Ellie?!”</p><p>He crouched down in front of her so they were face to face. “Funny story, really. She’s still shut down in my personal science lab. The God Bots searched her data and I have to say we found something quite interesting.”</p><p>“What are you talking about?”</p><p>He laid his chin on his fist, all smug like. “Oh you really are stupid.” There was a bit of a humorous tone in his bite. “I commanded the God Bots to search her memory to find out where the rest of your friends are hiding, but sadly it’s impossible to access.” A scowl crossed his face for a moment before he picked his smile back up. “But I was able to see the commands she had to follow. I had no idea she was protecting your child. I had no idea you have a child.” </p><p>Gloria tried to get out of her handcuffs so she could strangle this man. “SHUT THE FUCK UP! YOU THINK YOU’RE TOUGH SHIT BUT WAIT UNTIL I GET OUT OF HERE!” She spat.</p><p> </p><p>“Relax.” He waved his hands at her in a calming motion before standing up to pace around the room. “It’s not like I’ll kill the child right away. I’ll just rough it up a little like I did to the other.” </p><p>Gloria’s eyes widened because he didn’t learn about the miscarrage while scanning through Ellie’s data. “Like I would even give you the chance!”</p><p>“You don’t have a chance. Going to Target and leaving a child behind? How irresponsible of you. You must really hate kids if you want it dead so badly. You knew the moment you left you weren’t going to make it back. You were just denying it. What a pathetic mother.” </p><p>His insults were starting to hit too close to home, making Gloria tear up. “That’s not true! I didn’t mean for any of this to happen!”</p><p>He eyed her. “Didn’t mean for any of this to happen? It was your choice. You signed the kid’s death sentence the moment you left wherever your little hideout was.” </p><p>“It wasn’t my choice! I would’ve done ANYTHING to protect my child if I had the chance!”</p><p>He paused. “Had the chance? What do you mean “had”?” </p><p>Gloria looked away from him with tears streaming down her face.</p><p>“Oh my goodness, don’t tell me!” He clasped his hands together and started losing it. Steelbeak couldn’t stop laughing for a whole minute until he wiped a fake tear away. “You mean to tell me it’s dead? Now that’s rich. Guess you have one less thing to worry about though, that’s a shame.” </p><p>“SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP! JUST WAIT UNTIL I GET OUT OF HERE YOU IDIOTIC BASTARD! I WILL COME AFTER YOU AND KILL YOU WITHOUT ANOTHER THOUGHT DO YOU HEAR ME?! I WILL FUCK YOU UP, STEELBEAK! HOW DARE YOU!”</p><p>“I AM NOT AN IDIOT!” He grabbed a hold of Gloria’s head and slammed it against the concrete wall. She winced as the world blurred for a second before falling to her side. Steelbeak composed himself before continuing. “You think you have a chance of getting out of here? Maybe before. But not with the Steel collar I have on you. Impossible to take off and impossible to not follow commands.” He tapped the metal around her neck just to irritate her. “You belong to me now and you do as I say until the day of your death comes around. I just want to have fun watching you suffer first.”</p><p>Gloria closed her eyes tightly to deal with the pain coming from her head. “Go fuck yourself…” She muttered.</p><p>“Well that’s not something to say to the one in charge of your future now is it? I was debating sparing you if you were a good enough worker for my cause, you know.” He shrugged. “It was more likely you would be killed, but there was a slight chance I would keep you alive. Now there’s no chance so guess you blew your shot. These next few pathetic months as a slave will be your last so maybe you should be enjoying the moment.” Tapping his chin, Steelbeak hummed to himself. “I might change my mind to not kill you if you apologize? Keeping you as a prize wouldn’t be soooo bad.” </p><p>“Like HELL I would EVER apologize to you! You disgusting asshole!”</p><p>“Guess I’m going to have to teach you some lessons.” A tiny remote was taken out of his pocket and he pressed the button. A terrible shock, absolutely horrid, ran through Gloria’s body. She started to seize on the ground and scream bloody murder. The pain she felt couldn’t be described. “Oops, guess I forgot to tell you about that feature.” </p><p>Minutes of screaming and crying was heard from Gloria’s jail cell until Steelbeak finally pressed another button to end the pain.</p><p>“I don’t think that lesson was enough. You seem to be pretty stubborn.” He snapped his fingers and two God Bots entered the cell. “Tell me Gloria, are you afraid of the dark? I think some isolation would do you some good.” </p><p>Gloria was in too much pain to make another snarky remark back even though she really wanted to. She was still crying.</p><p>“In too much pain? Then I suppose isolation will really do you some good. Help you recover even.” He bent down and laid a hand on her shoulder. “Dead bodies have been piling up so I recently forced some citizens to become gravediggers. Coffins underground are really quiet this time of year.” They were quiet all times of the year but Steelbeak didn’t realize that. “I won’t leave you buried, but a few hours, perhaps days, would be a nice break for you, wouldn’t it?” Yep. Steelbeak was implying Gloria would be buried alive for an unknown amount of time. How fun. </p><p>The God Bots lifted Gloria up who was too weak to stand.</p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>Ellie finally became conscious again and the first thing she saw was a dingy ceiling. Before panic could even hit hard, she turned her head to examine the room and the science equipment that laid everywhere. Wherever she was, it was some sort of really unsanitary science lab. </p><p>Her body wouldn’t move and she looked down to realize that she was strapped down by her wrists and ankles. “No! Oh no!” Ellie struggled, pulling against the straps, but considering they were steel it didn’t work. She hadn’t remembered what had happened, in fact, the last thing she remembered was entering Target through the window with Gloria. </p><p>Oh god… had the God Bots gotten to them? </p><p>Where was Gloria?</p><p>She started whimpering pathetically as she tried to break the straps, with many more failed attempts to come. She had to get out of here. She had to get back to Boyd and Mark. </p><p>The main doors to the science lab opened up revealing none other than Steelbeak himself. Two more God Bots stayed on the other side of the door to stand guard. “Good morning. Did you sleep well?” His tone was sarcastic as he walked toward Ellie.</p><p>Seeing Steebeak again after their horrifying last encounter, after what he had done to Boyd, made Ellie wish to Duck Jesus she was still asleep. She made more pathetic noises as she continued to struggle to get out of the restraints. She couldn’t allow Steelbeak to separate her from her son again. </p><p>“You know, I’ll let you out of those restraints if you tell me where the others are. That simple.”</p><p>Knowing her escape attempts were futile, she laid her head back down on the table, making sure to avoid eye contact. “I would never. You can do whatever you want to me but I won’t allow you to get a hold of my family.” </p><p>Steelbeak huffed. He hated the fact that the two people he captured were stubborn as hell. “You will tell me where they are or else you’ll end up like Gloria!”</p><p>Ellie made eye contact with him, her eyes full of fear. “What did you do to her?!”</p><p>He smirked “She’s 6 feet underground now, laying in a coffin. All she did was yell and scream so I made sure to silence her.”</p><p>She wasn’t able to tell if he was lying or not. She bawled her fists before shaking her head. “I know you didn’t!” She spat. “You’re bluffing. You want us for something. There’s no way you killed her! You want me to watch for myself like the psycho you are!” </p><p>He laid a hand over his chest. “I am not lying. What’s the point in that? If you don’t believe me, I can take you to her grave sight.”</p><p>She still didn’t believe him. “Why are you doing this to us?! I was the one who angered you so why not just target me and leave them out of it?” </p><p>“Because I know how much you love your friends and family. It’s much more painful to watch others suffer for your actions, don’t you think?” Steelbeak smirked again and tilted Ellie’s head up with his index finger so she was looking up at him.</p><p>Something began to swell in Ellie’s chest. “I… I…” She couldn’t even manage to form a sentence and she felt so weak in a way she didn’t understand. </p><p>Steelbeak hummed in response. He knew what he was doing. After snooping around in her memories and data, he was able to reprogram and manipulate her emotions. “Did you say something, Ellie?” He leaned in closer.</p><p>The thoughts in Ellie’s head about reuniting with her friends and family, to protect them, subsided. She couldn’t think and she didn’t want to. She didn’t want to do anything but stay there. “I… don’t know what I was going to say.” </p><p>“You’re a lot calmer than Gloria was. Would you like to get out of the restraints now? If you continue to remain calm, I will maybe consider not killing you and instead keep you around as a secretary or something? Does that sound good?”</p><p>She nodded her head slowly and couldn’t manage to respond. The world around her was going out of focus as her full attention remained on him. </p><p>“Good!” Steelbeak smiled and unlocked the restraints around Ellie’s wrists. He backed up to give her enough room to hop off the table she was laying on. He knew that if she tried anything he, and the two God Bots waiting outside, would put a stop to it before it even began.</p><p>Ellie stood up slowly, almost falling over when her feet touched the ground and had to catch herself on the table before regaining her balance. Steelbeak may have rewired her to be weaker somehow, someway. She knew this was very bad and she knew she had to escape. She had to get away from Steelbeak, but she didn’t move. She just started observing the room instead, remaining in place. </p><p>Steelbeak stepped towards her again and, strangely enough, held onto her hand in a loving way. “Are you alright, Ellie?” He managed to give off the impression that he was concerned for her well-being.</p><p>There was something very wrong about this situation and Ellie was aware, but she also didn’t want to take her hand away. The warm feeling in her chest grew and she couldn’t stop it. She kept her eyes off of him, her head turned away in an attempt to get some control back. “...I think there’s something wrong with me.” She whispered. </p><p>“Hmm? What do you mean?” He whispered back. He rubbed his thumb against Ellie’s hand.</p><p>She shut her eyes tight, although she squeezed his hand back. “I need to get away from you but I- I can’t. I don’t want to…” </p><p>Steelbeak used his free hand to gently move Ellie’s head back forward so she would look at him again. “And why is that…?” He trailed off before brushing a lock of hair out of her face.</p><p>Ellie opened her eyes at the sound of his voice and stared at him for a few moments. She brought her other hand up to stroke his cheek before tilting her head. She leaned forward and brought him into a soft kiss. </p><p>Steelbeak knew what he was doing but he was also an idiotic himbo at heart so he didn’t see that kiss coming. He rolled with it anyways and wrapped his arms around her waist.</p><p>And it was that motion that made Ellie’s eyes shoot back open, she broke the kiss and shoved him away as best as she could, though still being very weak. She tumbled backward into the table, heaving heavily. “What- what did you do?! Why do I like you?!” She screamed, the feeling in her chest still holding onto her. </p><p>Steelbeak’s expression grew darker. “Simple. After your little adventure in Target, my loyal God Bots were able to access your database and were able to alter your emotions toward me. Are you not happy about that?”</p><p>“N-no!” Ellie could feel herself slip away again and was using all her energy to hold onto reality and force words out. “Stay away from me!” </p><p>“Why?! I’m clearly better than Beaks ever was to you and you know it! Help me track him down, Ellie. He deserves to suffer after how badly he’s treated you.”</p><p>Ellie clung a hand to her chest as if that would make the feeling go away. She knew the thoughts she was thinking weren't right, but they felt so real and it was hard to dismiss them. “He- he never meant to do me any harm… I think.” She frowned.</p><p>“Of course he did and still does! Why else were you there with Gloria and not him to look out for you? I bet he isn’t even looking for you right now and I can prove it.” Steelbeak pulled out his phone to open up Mark’s twitter page. “Mmhmmm just what I thought. He’s been tweeting this entire time.” He held the phone out for Ellie to look for herself. “He doesn’t care.”</p><p>Glancing at it, Ellie’s metaphorical breath hitched before she looked away from the phone. She started to slip away more. “I know… you’re right.” </p><p>He smirked and put his phone away. “I know I am. So let me help by killing him for you.”</p><p>“Kill him?” She shook her head and looked back at him. “Kill him like you want to kill my son?!” She crouched down and started pulling on her hair, trying to get a grip on reality again. “No! I won’t listen to you! What you’re doing to me, manipulating me, forcing me to love you, is sick! If you want me, fine, but you will not get your filthy hands on them!” </p><p>His smirk faded as he brought out the same remote from before and pressed the button. The same technology in the collars were inside of Ellie’s programming. “I’m sorry you feel that way.”</p><p>Her body jerked in unnatural positions before she finally fell over onto the floor. She tried to scream but nothing happened, it was as if her voice had shut down like all that time ago in Agartha. Instead, it just looked like she was struggling for air as she gripped her head harder; her seizing spasms became more violent. The pain she had felt before, when Steelbeak had smashed her head against the desk, was nothing compared to this. The shocks of agony routed from her head, shooting through the rest of her body. </p><p>Steelbeak pressed the button again, stopping the pain for a brief moment. “Are you willing to tell me where they are now? Keep in mind that I can do this all day and there is no way of removing this from your programming.” He kept his thumb hovering over the button while he waited for Ellie to respond.</p><p>She curled up into a ball, shaking. “No. I won’t tell you.” </p><p>“Suit yourself.” He pressed the button again, watching Ellie writhe on the floor for minutes that turned into hours very quickly. He eventually sat down to scroll through his phone. Dinner was rolling around and he decided it was a good time to stop. 4 hours was enough. He walked over to Ellie, hands behind his back, to look down at her. “I’ll be back tomorrow unless you’re willing to tell me where they are hiding now. Up to you.”</p><p>After all the pain and hours of Ellie trying to fight against her new emotional programming, the programming that forced her to have a connection to him, she couldn’t even process what he said. All she knew was he was about to leave and she didn’t want that, not when the only thing that survived through all that pain was the warm feeling in her chest. Yep, she was indeed slipping into a sick delusion.</p><p>She didn’t have enough strength to lift her head, not after all of that, but she did manage to reach out a hand toward his foot, though it was out of reach. “Please don’t leave… I want you to stay with me.” She whispered. </p><p>Steelbeak kicked her away. “I will if you tell me where they are! I’m getting tired of repeating myself! This is your last chance for the day before I come back tomorrow with the same form of torture.”</p><p>Ellie didn’t understand his demand, it was so hard to think that she didn’t even want to search her memory for who “they” even were. She was just so mentally drained to the point she was on the verge of sobbing. “Please…” </p><p>He scoffed and walked away from her, leaving her on the floor. She didn’t even need restraints anymore. “I guess I will be back tomorrow.” He left with his two God Bots, locking the science lab behind him.</p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p>
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<a name="section0027"><h2>27. Glomgold's Cockroach Tears</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Gloria has been trapped in a coffin for hours? Days? She wasn’t sure and she was trying her best not to think about it too much. The idea of more and more time passing made her believe that she was truly going to be buried alive and die from suffocation. At first Gloria didn’t mind being in a coffin at all! She just took it as an opportunity to take a well deserved nap without any interruptions. After waking up and not knowing how long she had been asleep made her paranoid and her anxiety levels were now through the roof. She tried clawing her way out but the wood was too thick. She tried screaming out of desperation although she knew she was underground. Gloria has been lucky to cheat death for 49 chapters now but she felt that her luck had finally worn out.</p>
<p>Just as she was about to start screaming again, the coffin opened to reveal a smirking Steelbeak looking down at her. She was still in a bit but she hadn’t even heard people digging her up. He waved at her. “Good morning, camper.” </p>
<p>Gloria covered her eyes from the sun and didn’t respond to Steelbeak. She honestly had no idea that she would even see the light of day again and all of the PTSD in her brain trying to process what is going on isn’t helping.</p>
<p>“Missed the sun? Yeah, it’s pretty nice to look at, yeah?” He pointed toward the sky. “Anyway, you’re in luck! I’ve come to the conclusion that you are of no use to me anymore.”</p>
<p>“...what?” Her voice was scratchy from screaming and dehydration.</p>
<p>Steelbeak shrugged. “I already got the information I needed from your dear friend, Ellie.” He lied. The truth was he knew Gloria was too stubborn to ever give in and he was fed up with her. Ellie, on the other hand, was much easier to break. “Speaking of which…” He pulled out a waddle flash drive and threw it at Gloria. It obviously wasn’t Ellie’s but she didn’t know that. Messing with her was just plane fun. “I erased all her data and memories so there will be no restoring her, but I figured you would want to keep it anyway.” </p>
<p>Gloria slowly sat up in the coffin and picked up the flash drive and immediately started crying. “YOU’RE A FUCKING LIAR! ELLIE CAN’T BE DEAD!” </p>
<p>“Liar?” He raised a brow. “Look at what you’re holding.” </p>
<p>She clutched the flash drive to her chest and cried harder. Gloria wasn’t sure how much more of this she could take.</p>
<p>“Oh save it. It’s just a robot.” He scoffed. “Anyway, I have more important things to do so I’m just going to send you off to do some forced labor until I get the rest of your little gang together for execution. Sound good?” </p>
<p>“Fuck you!”</p>
<p>“Yeah yeah. I get it. You hate me.” He turned to snap his fingers. “God Bots, you mind taking her away to do her new work environment?”</p>
<p>Two God Bots nodded, jumping into the grave to take Gloria into custody. She started screaming, kicking and struggling as much as she could but their grip tightened and the pain was seering, but she held onto the flash drive for dear life. </p>
<p>As Steelbeak was waving a goodbye he said one more thing. “You should probably remember this site because it’s soon going to be your permanent home.”</p>
<p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p>
<p>Mark, yawned, taking off his golden silk face mask. Morning already? Damn, he slept like a baby. As always, he immediately took out his phone to start tweeting. “Yo, Ellie, get me a Pop Tart.” When she didn’t respond he looked over to the other side of the bed where Boyd was sleeping. “Still gone? Damn.” He shrugged it off and began taking more selfies with dog filters and peace signs. </p>
<p>He did have a minor freakout about it last night, but there was no way she left the mansion. Gyro was right about one thing in his goddamn life. Miss Glamour’s mansion was so huge that they probably just got lost and would find their way back shortly. Mark had done that countless times and still did it. </p>
<p>The door opened without warning. “MARK!”</p>
<p>Mark almost dropped his phone. “DUDE WHAT THE HELL?! YOU’RE RUINING MY MORNING ROUTINE!” </p>
<p>Boyd began stirring his sleep.</p>
<p>“YOU’RE MORNING ROUTINE DOESN’T MATTER! I’VE BEEN LOOKING FOR THE TWO OF THEM ALL DAMN NIGHT AND THEY’RE STILL NOWHERE TO BE FOUND!”</p>
<p>“Okayyyyyyyy wow ummmm… can you just stop yelling please? You’re hurting my eardrums!”</p>
<p>Gyro started pulling at his hair; he wanted to punch this man so bad. But he usually did so whatever. “DO YOU NOT EVEN CARE?! ARE YOU INSANE?!” </p>
<p>“Looooooook I just woke up so I have no idea what you’re even talking about right now? Care about what?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Putting his hands together, Gyro took a deep breath to calm down before walking over to Mark. “Remember how last night Ellie and Gloria didn’t show up for dinner?” He began talking to Mark like he was a preschooler. “Well, I searched the mansion for them alllllll night and they are no where in this damn house.” </p>
<p>“Oh that’s wack. Maybe they just left? I mean, I guess I can’t blame Gloria for leaving you but I don’t know why Ellie would!”</p>
<p>“SHUT UP!” He stomped his clown foot. “There’s no way they just left by their own free will! Someone must’ve gotten to them somehow!”</p>
<p>Boyd finally woke up and sat up, rubbing his eyes. “Dad, what’s going on?” </p>
<p>“Ugh! Now look what you’ve done! You woke Boyd up with your constant yelling.” Mark crossed his arms in annoyance.</p>
<p>Gyro ignored him and turned his attention to Boyd. “Boyd, when’s the last time you saw your mom?”</p>
<p>“Um…yesterday. Why?”</p>
<p>He countered the question with another. “Did she say anything about leaving or what she was doing…?”</p>
<p>“Oh…” Boyd yawned, still in a state of waking up. “My pain has been getting worse lately and she told me she would “figure something out” before she left.” </p>
<p>“”Figure something out”? What the hell does that mean?” Mark asked himself.</p>
<p>Gyro groaned, pinching in between his eyes. “I knew it. They left!” He turned to Mark, shoving a finger into his chest. “Your DAMN robot girlfriend probably convinced Gloria to tag along to get some tools or some shit! WOW! THIS COULDN’T GET ANY BETTER!” </p>
<p>Mark raised his voice to match Gyro’s tone “Now wait just a minute! What makes you think it wasn’t Gloria who told her to leave with her, huh?!”</p>
<p>“BECAUSE BOYD JUST SAID ELLIE CLAIMED SHE WOULD FIGURE SOMETHING OUT! IT WAS HER DOING!” </p>
<p>“... oh yeah.”</p>
<p>“GODDAMNIT! WHY DO YOU NOT CARE?! I DON’T UNDERSTAND YOU!” </p>
<p>“Hey! I do care! I’m sorry that I’m able to control my emotions and live that chill life and not go around barging into people’s rooms like some- some- COMMONER!”</p>
<p>Pacing around the room, Gyro started to freak out more. “What are we going to do??? Steelbeak probably got them! He’s going to kill them!” </p>
<p>“Easy! We steal my mom’s limo and drive around until we find them! Go me for coming up with a super awesome plan!” Mark high fived himself.</p>
<p>“And what? Pull up to the capitol building and politely ask to have them back?!” </p>
<p>“Ummmm we don’t know that they are captured!”</p>
<p>“If they weren’t captured, they would be back by now!” Gyro slapped his fist against the large dresser, but he was too scrawny to leave a dent. </p>
<p>“... oh yeah.”</p>
<p>“Wait…” He turned back to Mark. “Remember what Steelbeak said? He said he wanted us to be together so we could watch each other die.” </p>
<p>“Oh yeah he did say that! God, what a tool…”</p>
<p>Gyro began to hyperventilate. “That means they might not be dead and if we go to rescue them and get captured ourselves then they’re 100% dead!” He pulled at his hair again. “There’s nothing we can do!!!” </p>
<p>Mark looked at Gyro and then back at Boyd who was just watching this man freak out in the middle of the room. “Soooo should we go to breakfast now orrrrrr..?” He trailed off.</p>
<p>Gyro slapped him. “ELLIE COULD DIE, MARK!” </p>
<p>“HEY! Not cool! I just took off my face mask and your nasty greasy hands just ruined my skincare routine! Also, Ellie can’t die, that's like… not how robots work! Duh! Do you even know how robots even work?!”</p>
<p>“HE COULD PERMANENTLY DAMAGE HER YOU IDIOT! AND GLORIA SURE AS HELL CAN DIE!” He stormed toward the door and leaned on the frame. “I don’t know what to fucking do so we’re talking about this at breakfast. Now.” </p>
<p>Mark did a dramatic groan. “FINALLY! I’ve been wanting waffles! C’mon Boyd!”</p>
<p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Ellie laid sideways on the ground, behind the metal table she had been strapped to yesterday. Her back was against its rusted side as she remained starring ahead lifelessly, like she had been for hours on end. But she refused to shut down when she had no idea what was coming next.</p>
<p>The door creaked open as Steelbeak entered. He scanned the room as he walked in, stopping when he realized he couldn’t see her.</p>
<p>She didn’t need to see who entered to know it was him. It had been 24 hours and she knew his return was inevitable and fast approaching, which she didn’t have an issue with. All she wanted was him to stay by her and comfort her. She didn’t even realize it was because of her reprogramming anymore. Her grip on reality had diminished quickly over the night, along with the trust she had in Mark. Whatever Steelbeak had done to her was enough for her to question the feelings she had for Mark all along. She started believing Mark was the one manipulating her, not Steelbeak.</p>
<p>But the one thing that Steelbeak didn’t reprogram was her love for Boyd, a large mistake on his half. Ellie may have looked past what he had done to her, the pain he put her through, but she couldn’t look past what he did to Boyd. Even if she was falling for the monster himself against her will. The memory of seeing Boyd so helpless and the pain of him being torn away from her arms was the only thing keeping her in her hiding place instead of running into Steelbeak’s arms to beg for an embrace.</p>
<p>She wanted him to love her, but she wasn’t going to earn it by giving away Boyd’s safe haven. That was her rule.</p>
<p>Her subconscious feared that one sane part of herself would eventually diminish like everything else had.</p>
<p>This is some Stockholm Syndrome shit or something. And you thought Mickey Mouse was the worst. You fool. </p>
<p>“Ellie! Where are you?!” Steelbeak yelled. The God Bots manning the door almost shit themselves. If Ellie managed to escape then they couldn’t even begin to imagine the best case scenario of what kind of horror Steelbeak would do to them and other poor souls nearby.</p>
<p>Ellie bit her tongue, remaining on the ground like she was dead and it took all of her willpower. </p>
<p>Steelbeak stomped his way through the room until he finally saw Ellie laying on the floor. He scowled, bending down to pick her up by the arm, forcing her on her feet “What the hell were you doing on the ground?!”</p>
<p>The God Bots sighed in relief now that they knew she hadn’t escaped.</p>
<p>“... I don’t know.” She whispered, still very weak from the hours of torture she had experienced that night. But her metaphorical heart started fluttering now that he was in the room again and she couldn’t think straight. </p>
<p>Steelbeak huffed and pulled out the remote again. “Alright so are you going to tell me where your friends are now? Or should I pick up where I left off yesterday?”</p>
<p>Ellie took a step back. “Please don’t. I really want to tell you but I just cannot.” </p>
<p>“WHY NOT?!” Steelbeak wasn’t having any of this bullshit today. He slapped Ellie across the face as hard as he could causing her to fall down again.</p>
<p>She whimpered, running a hand down her cheek that still very much stung. Pain seemed to become more real to her everyday. She still wondered what happened to her for her to be able to experience it lately. “Because I can’t let you get to Boyd…” </p>
<p>“And why is that?! Do you not trust me to help you look after your child?”</p>
<p>“No. Not after what you did to him.” </p>
<p>“Okay then let's compromise: Tell me where Mark and that other guy- what’s his name? Whatever. Tell me where they are and not where Boyd is and we can leave it at that, alright?”</p>
<p>Ellie held herself, fearing when he was going to press the button again. “No.” </p>
<p>Steelbeak’s eye twitched. There were only so many different ways he could ask the same damn question. He pushed the button on the remote as a warning. “TELL ME WHERE THEY ARE!” After a few seconds he pressed the button again to turn it off, giving her a chance to speak up.</p>
<p>Her body was still twitching, her hand laid across her chest. “No.” She whimpered. </p>
<p>“DO YOU WANT TO END UP DEAD LIKE YOUR FRIEND?! BECAUSE THAT’S ALL I’M HEARING EVERY TIME YOU SAY “NO”!” </p>
<p>“I want to tell you but I just can’t. I’m sorry.” Ellie sobbed. She hugged herself tighter, her feelings for him became more intense by the second. Before he could respond, she started going off the rails on a total different subject, losing complete control. “I was so lonely last night. All I wanted was for you to hold me in your arms but you left anyway.” She started sobbing harder. “I do not understand why you hate me so much. I just want you to love me as much as I love you, but all you are doing is hurting me as much as Mark did. I don’t- I don’t know what I’m doing wrong for people to treat me this way. I know you can be there for me like no one else ever could, but you're so far out of reach.” </p>
<p>Steelbeak was silent and confused. This entire time he thought that the reprogramming hadn’t worked and that her new feelings weren’t working properly based on her defiance and will to fight the night prior. “Okay wait let me get this straight… So you love me, yes?” If it was true, and her reprogramming was a success, then he had no problem changing tactics and to use her feelings against her.</p>
<p>She continued sobbing on the ground before nodding her head frantically, begging for him to understand.</p>
<p>He smirked. “Hmmm.” Steelbeak put the remote away. “Get up. You’re not staying in here anymore.” </p>
<p>Ellie looked up at him confused and still shaking. “...why?” Her voice was weak and unsteady. </p>
<p>Steelbeak held his hand out for her to use to help stand up. “Change of heart, I guess. You want to get out of this horrible lab, don’t you? So get up.”</p>
<p>Still unsure, she took his hand and stood up. It was hard for her to stand, still being very weak from all the agony she had been put through, but she managed by desperately holding onto him. “I do not care where we go, I just want to be with you.” She whispered, holding on tighter to his sleeve. “Please don’t leave me. Please.”<br/>
_____________________________________________________________________________________</p>
<p>The God Bots shoved Gloria forward into a large underground sewer. She had a used, grimey uniform that matched all the others who were currently shoveling out manure that was clogging the system. “Alright,” One of them said, pointing to a pile of shovels. “Get to work or we’re going to have some more issues.” He gestured to a remote on his side, hinting there would be painful consequences if she didn’t go along with it.</p>
<p>Normally Gloria would take her chances, attempting to fight the God Bots and escape but honestly people, homegirl was tired and mentally drained. All she could do was nod and take a shovel and copy what the other workers were doing.</p>
<p>The worker beside her eyes her in disgust. “You’re new here.” </p>
<p>Gloria looked at him but didn’t respond.</p>
<p>“Let me tell you how things work around here, pal.” He stopped, pushing his shovel into the shit to lean on it. He scowled at her. “The people who get the most work done get an extra meal and me and my pals,” He gestured to a group of large men. “Always get those meals. So you try to do an ungodly amount of work, get in our way and get those meals, you’re dead. Don’t want to end up like Bobby Joe, do you?” He </p>
<p>Gloria shot him a disgusted look “Bobby Joe? The fuck kind of name is that?”</p>
<p>Ignoring that, the man nudged his head toward who Gloria assumed was “Bobby Joe”. The man had all his limbs torn off and had to shovel the manure with his mouth. “We did that, got it? Stay out of our way.” He spit before turning his attention back to his work. </p>
<p>“Charming fellow…” Gloria muttered to herself as she continued working. She did make a mental note to work slowly though.</p>
<p>She ignored the scuttling behind her before someone hit her on the back, hard. And continued to do so like she was a drum. “OY!”<br/>
Gloria jumped and quickly spun around to see who was talking to her. The only thing in her line of sight was a red poof ball (Boyd has his original hat but he managed to shank another local Scots man (no, not Scrooge) into getting a new one that looked just like the original). She had to look down to see that it was none other than Flintheart Glomgold himself.</p>
<p>“GIVE ME THAT TOOL, BITCH! THAT’S MYYYYY SHOVEL!” </p>
<p>“Glomgold?”</p>
<p>His face went blank and he eyed her up and down. “Gladis?” </p>
<p>“Ew Gladis? No, Gloria! We literally were imprisoned together in Agartha!”</p>
<p>“Oh… I see.” He scratched his head for a second. “I thought you were my mailman but I remember now, maybe...BUT DON’T CARE! GIMME ME DAMN SHOVEL!” </p>
<p>Gloria held the shovel behind her back so he wouldn’t grab it. “Why?! There are others over there just grab another one!”</p>
<p>“NO!” He protested. “THAT SHOVEL WORKS THE BEST!” </p>
<p>She sighed and handed it to him, hoping that he would leave her alone if she did. “Take it.”</p>
<p>Glomgold snatched it, immediately gnawing at the handle to claim it as his. “WOT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!” He yelled while chewing on the very unsanitary wood. </p>
<p>“Steelbeak captured me and Ellie…” It just hit Gloria that she may have to be the one to tell Glomgold the news that his niece was dead.</p>
<p>“ROBO BABEH?!” He scuttled in circles, looking for her. When he realized she wasn’t there he turned to Gloria again, pointing the shit covered metal at her in accusation. “WHY AM I STUCK WITH YOO INSTEAD OF ROBO BABEH!? I DON’T WANT YOO AROUND ME RUINING MY JAM!” </p>
<p>Gloria ignored that and sighed “Glomgold, I don’t know how to tell you this…”</p>
<p>He backed up, still holding the shovel out to keep distance. “DON’T YOO GO CONFESSING YOUR UNDYING LOVE TO ME! I KNEW YOU WERE AFTER ME ALL THIS TIME BUT I AM NOT INTERESTED, YOU SCUM!” </p>
<p>Gloria’s jaw dropped “WHAT?! NO!” She shoved his round little body back, almost making him fall in a pile of shit. </p>
<p>“DON’T DENY IT YOU PIECE OF COW SHIT!” (haha) “I NO WANT SMOOCHIES FROM YOO! DISGUSTING!” He spat everywhere and boy oh boy did his breath not smell good. Probably because he just gnawed on a poo covered shovel handle. </p>
<p>Gloria shook her head, ignoring him “Listen to me!” She took out the flash drive Steelbeak threw at her from her pocket and held it out for Glomgold to see. “Steelbeak- he… Ellie’s gone, Glomgold. I’m so sorry.”</p>
<p>“...oh...I see…” </p>
<p>She put the flash drive back in her pocket, noticing Glomgold wipe a tiny cockroach tear from his eye. No one, not even Scrooge McDuck himself, had seen THE Flintheart Glomgold cry. His skull and skin was too thick to cry!</p>
<p>“Are you okay?” That was a pretty dumb question to ask him but Gloria had to say something. She would’ve hugged him but he’s pretty gross so no.</p>
<p>He turned his back to her. “I’M FINNNNEEEEE! LEAVE ME ALONE, GLADIS!” </p>
<p>“Gloria.”</p>
<p>“WHATEVER!” He huffed. “WHY WOULD I CARE ABOUT ELBOW!? I AM FLINTHEART GLOMGOLD! THAT SOUNDS LIKE A YOO ISSUE! I’VE SEEN HER DECAPITATED HEAD BEFORE, THIS MEANS NOTHING!” </p>
<p>“SHE’S REALLY GONE THIS TIME, YOU STUPID LITTLE MAN!” Gloria shoved him again.</p>
<p>He wiped more baby cockroach tears from his eyes. The actual cockroaches that were on the piles of shit watched in shock. “LEAVE MEH ALONE!” </p>
<p>“FINE!” Gloria walked away long enough to grab another shovel before going back next to Glomgold to continue working.</p>
<p>He shoveled next to her, scottishly grunting every single time. This went on for a few minutes before he whispered. “Gladis…?” </p>
<p>“Yeah?” She didn’t want to continue correcting him. It was too much effort.</p>
<p>He coughed into his fist, embarrassed. “I… am dad.” </p>
<p>“You’re a dad?” Gloria’s first thought was who the unlucky woman was.</p>
<p>“NO! ...fad.” </p>
<p>“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”</p>
<p>“UGH!” He waddled away for a few minutes before coming back. “What’s the word where you’re mad… but don’t want to punch someone.” </p>
<p>Gloria thought about it for a moment. “Oh… Glomgold… are you sad? Sad about Ellie?”</p>
<p>“NO!” He screamed. “...maybeh.” </p>
<p>“I know, I’m sad too. She really did love you, though. Despite everything you were a good uncle.”</p>
<p>“Gladis….” He turned his head away dramatically, sniffling to add that extra effect because that’s what he saw in movies when people were “sad” and he didn’t know how else to express the emotion he was feeling. “I have to tell you something else.” </p>
<p>“What is it?”</p>
<p>“This is going to sound crazy… but I don’t think I was a very good Uncle. Emphasis on ‘think’.” </p>
<p>“No you probably weren’t, but Ellie didn’t care about that. You know?”</p>
<p>Glomgold didn’t know how to say “thank you” so he tried to put it in a different way. “...pushing you off that one cliff that time in the uhhh, opposite word for future, wasn’t the best thing I could’ve done, but I don’t regret it, just so ya know.” </p>
<p>She had no idea how his small brain thought about that but whatever. “If you’re trying to apologize, I forgive you.”</p>
<p>“EW! NO! WE’RE NOT FRIENDS! I AM FLINTHEART GLOMGOLD! I DON’T NEED FRIENDS, THEY DISAPPOINT MEH!” </p>
<p>“Yeah, you seem like the kind of person who doesn’t have any friends.”</p>
<p>“...I thought Steelbeak was me friend but he betrayed meh…”</p>
<p>“I can’t believe I’m going to say this but Glomgold, let's team up and try to escape. We can leave and meet up with some friends to try to take down Steelbeak.”</p>
<p>“Uhhhh...why?” He asked.</p>
<p>“What do you mean, “why?”?! Do you want to be shoveling shit for the rest of your life?”</p>
<p>“NO! BUT I DON’T WANT TO BE ELECTROCUTED AGAIN!” He pointed to his collar. “They listen in our conversations sometimes…” </p>
<p>“Fuck… they do?” Gloria was on edge, waiting to see if her collar started to zap her. Luckily nothing happened.</p>
<p>“Yee. That’s how I get my ass beat all the time.” He paused, looking at the pile of excrement. “Wait… I know what we can do.” </p>
<p>“What is it?”</p>
<p>He took a pile of shit and shoved it into the mic on his collar. “Now they can’t hear meh!” </p>
<p>“Glomgold you truly are a Renaissance Man.”</p>
<p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p>
<p>Art by ballpitbee! Go follow them on Instagram and Twitter! I absolutely adore their art! Commission them like I did if you can!</p>
<p>
 
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Comments mean a lot ;-; Yes, I'm fishing for them. I'm not afraid to admit it.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0028"><h2>28. Fenton Enters The Chat</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Steelbeak and Ellie sat in his personal office on the sofa that was placed in front of the large window. Something Steelbeak had requested the other day so he could watch the city, his city, burn in the distance and his people slave away during his free time. </p><p>Ellie didn’t understand why he chose this place to take her out of all places; the view made her rather upset and he probably knew that, but she didn’t say anything. She was just happy to be out of that dingy lab where she assumed she was safe from torture at the moment. Emphasis on “assumed”. Nonetheless, she was just pleased to be by his side, even if they sat a good few feet apart. </p><p>Truthfully, she was quite embarrassed about her sudden feelings that had blossomed toward him, not to mention the fact that she admitted all of her feelings to him with no control or warning. In fact, she was so ashamed that she kept her mouth shut the entirety of the walk to his office, as well as the time they sat together. Steelbeak had done the same for unknown reasons that she didn’t bother questioning.</p><p>He was currently leaning on the armrest in a relaxed position, puffing on a much too expensive cigar and every so often tapping ash in the ashtray beside him. Every time he blew out a trail of smoke, the air conditioning blew most of it in Ellie’s direction. The warmth of it had recently started to irritate her man-made skin, but she avoided scratching herself or waving it away so she wouldn’t draw attention or make him upset with her. </p><p>The tense, silent air made the minutes seem like hours. But according to Ellie’s internal clock, it had only been a little over one hour. She passed the time by thinking about Boyd, hoping he was doing alright with the pain he had to deal with that she had failed to retrieve tools for. She longed to hold him again almost as much as she longed for Steelbeak to hold her. Her subconscious was aware how messed up that thought was, how she was betraying her actual love, Mark, for a sickening enemy that had hurt her and all her loved ones. A murderer who killed her best friend. But her current conscious, the one in front and in charge, was not aware of that anymore. However, it didn’t stop her from shivering. Steelbeak had noticed her sudden flinch and glanced over in her direction. That embarrassed Ellie even more and she hoped to Duck Jesus he wouldn’t say anything. Starting a sudden conversation now would be too awkward. She knew that, even with an obsession for the man next to her.</p><p>Ellie could still feel Steelbeak’s gaze on her after she had flinched unintentionally and she waited in anticipation for him to look away and continue smoking so her “heart” could stop fluttering for one second. </p><p>“So… you like me… how did that happen, huh?” This himbo ass knew the answer but Ellie didn’t. He also knew her reprogramming had made her forget what he said about changing her emotions for him. Right now he just wanted to watch her suffer trying to come up with an answer.</p><p>Ellie internally cringed. He indeed started a conversation when she least wanted it. “...I don’t know…” She said, continuing to stare at the horrid view in front of her. </p><p>“Well, I guess I’m not surprised. I mean, we went on a date a few months back. Do you remember that?”</p><p>She did remember, but the memory had become rather blurry when she tried to look back on it and analyze what had happened that night. That was just another strange thing happening to her that was added to a large pile of many other questionable things. “No… I don’t.” She settled on saying. </p><p>“Oh really?! Well it was great! We went to Red Lobster and I think we totally hit it off! To be honest I wanted to ask you out on another date before all of this chaos broke out.”</p><p>“That does not make any sense. Why would I have gone on a date with you when I was with Mark?”  Ellie was flattered he had wanted to ask her out again but this whole thing still felt like a huge pre-planned lie. She still wished he was telling the truth, it just wasn’t quite believable. </p><p>Steelbeak shrugged “Beats me. I tried asking you about Mark but it only made you cry so I changed the subject.” He opened up one of his drawers attached to his desk and moved some important documents around until he found the receipt from Red Lobster. “Here’s the receipt. Maybe it’ll help retrace your memory.”</p><p>She slowly took the receipt from him to study it. The date sounded very familiar, she had been upset with Mark at the time. Ellie handed the receipt back to him without saying anything else. There wasn’t anything she thought she could say. </p><p>He put the receipt back where he found it and shut the dware. “Anyways, since I’m like, in charge of everything around here now, I would love to take you on another date again sometime.”</p><p>Her chest warmed up again and it took every ounce of her willpower to not spill out everything to him. How she wanted him to stop talking and just embrace her. But she wanted to try to keep some of her dignity and countered his question. “What are you going to do to me? I did not give you the information you wanted so why are you...being nice? I’m not useful to you. You… you got rid of Gloria when she wasn’t useful to you.” She choked out. “I am not any different.” </p><p>“I don’t get it… We both like eachother and I want to take you out on a second date so why are you questioning my reasoning? Aren’t you happy that I asked you out and stopped electrocuting you?”</p><p>“What? Of course I am!” Ellie waved her hands frantically, trying to get herself out of the hole she just dug herself into. The last thing she wanted to do was push him further away when he was just getting closer. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything. I’m just very confused about everything going on right now.” </p><p>Steelbeak inhaled the last bit of his cigar before putting it out. “So is that a “yes”? On the date?”</p><p>She quickly nodded her head, giving him an immediate yes. She was in anguish while waiting for him to move closer to her; hoping he did. Her programmed emotions were going haywire and she awkwardly twiched again. </p><p>Steelbeak smirked, knowing what her programming was doing to her, and that her subconscious was trying to stop it. “What’s wrong.”</p><p>“N-nothing.” Ellie stammered out quickly, looking away.</p><p>“You’ve been twitching all day. Why is that?” </p><p>Stop asking questions. Ellie internally demanded of him. She was still much too embarrassed to admit to anything. “It’s just a- just a habit of mine.”</p><p>“Really? Because I don’t remember you doing that during our date.”</p><p>She gulped. “That’s… weird.” </p><p>“It is…” He scooted over and took Ellie’s hand to stare at it as if he was in deep thought. “I’m sorry that I had to hurt you yesterday. You know I didn’t want to, right? I’ve just been angry as of late and Mark Beaks, the thorn in my side, has not been much of a help. It pains me to think about all the horrible things he’s done to you in the past- but that’s another story. We shouldn’t even be talking about him! I’m sure you’re much happier here now with me than you ever were with him.”</p><p>Ellie squeezed his hand and smiled softly. “Don’t apologize, I understand.” She insisted. “Mark has intentionally hurt me many times but I- I know that you don’t mean to and I appreciate it. I deserved it for… not complying.” </p><p>He smiled back “Thank you for seeing it from my perspective. It’s been so stressful being a dictator and all but you’ve been great at helping to remind me of what truly matters in life.”</p><p>Her chest was so warm and full; she couldn’t tell if she was in pain or in bliss. Ellie twitched awkwardly again causing her to lean forward a bit. “You remind me of what matters too.” </p><p>Steelbeak cupped Ellie’s cheek with his hand before gently kissing her. The kiss didn’t last long but to Ellie it felt like an eternity. “Damn, you’re so beautiful…” He broke the kiss long enough to compliment her before kissing her again. This time it was longer. Much longer.</p><p>Ellie grabbed onto his shirt to pull him forward to deepen it. She finally felt whole for the first time in what felt like forever. His warm embrace and the comfort she felt with him felt so...familiar. She pulled away before coming in close again, but this time nuzzling her head into the crook of his neck and wrapping her arms around him. Ellie finally felt relaxed after all the torture she had been through and she was finally with the person she missed dearly. “I love you, Mark.” She whispered. </p><p>Steelbeak froze and grabbed Ellie’s hands, pulling her off of him. “What did you just say?”</p><p>Ellie wondered what he meant until it dawned on her. She tensed up and tried to pull away but his grip only tightened. “I- I didn’t mean it! I don’t know what I was thinking!” </p><p>Steelbeak shot up and slapped her right across the face. “AFTER EVERYTHING I’VE DONE FOR YOU, YOU ARE STILL THINKING ABOUT MARK FUCKING BEAKS?! YOU BITCH!”</p><p>Holding her cheek, Ellie slowly stood up and backed away from him, holding a hand out in a calming manner. “I wasn’t in the right state of mind! It just slipped out!” Ellie couldn’t believe what she had just done to him. Why had she started fantasizing about Mark after how badly he had manipulated her? </p><p>Steelbeak ignored her pleas and took out the remote again. “OH I’M SURE IT DID!” He kicked her in the stomach, letting her fall on the ground, before pressing the button. </p><p>Unlike yesterday, Ellie managed out a blood curdling scream as she grabbed her chest, curling in on herself on the floor. “STOP! PLEASE! I CAN’T TAKE THIS ANYMORE!” She begged, sobbing. </p><p>“YOU SHOULD’VE THOUGHT ABOUT THAT BEFORE YOU SAID MARK’S NAME INSTEAD OF MINE! YOU DESERVE TO BE IN PAIN!”</p><p>“I know I do!” Her voice was weaker now, she felt like she was going to shut down from pure shock at any moment. And who knows if she would actually wake up. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry Mark keeps getting in the way!”</p><p>“Oh trust me… Soon Mark won’t be in the way for very much longer.” </p><p>He walked close to her so he could glare down and watch her body twist in unnatural positions. Steelbeak’s smile faded when he noticed she had shut down, probably from the shock of pain. He kept the button on anyway so she could feel it when she woke up. </p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>Although Gyro had insisted that they talk plans over waffles, they didn’t. Mark ignored his rambling as he tweeted and took selfies while Boyd was having a blast sorting his sprinkles into different sections on his own waffle. Gyro gave up eventually and huffed, drinking his own black coffee in an angry silence. </p><p>Boyd looked over at Mark, adding more sprinkles along with chocolate syrup on his breakfast. “Can we do something fun today, dad?”  </p><p>“Well DUH!? What else would we be doing today?”</p><p>Gyro almost threw his coffee at Mark. “COMING UP WITH PLANS!”</p><p>“Oh right…” Mark turned to look at Gyro “You’re still here. I guess you can tag along if you want.”</p><p>Scowling, Gyro bawled his fists. </p><p>“Grandma Glamour has a bowling alley, right?” </p><p>Mark nodded “Obviously! Is that what you wanna do today, sport?”</p><p>“Yes!”</p><p>“No!” Gyro countered, crossing his arms. </p><p>Mark scoffed. “Then stay behind! Trust me, I don’t want you to come bowling.” </p><p>“Oh no, I’m coming.” Gyro leaned over the table. “And we’re going to continue this discussion when we’re there, got it?” </p><p>“UGHHHHH BUZZKILL!” He nudged Boyd to help back him up “Am I right?!”</p><p>“um….#buzzkill?” His son added. </p><p>“Oh yeah!” Mark gave Boyd a hive five “Two against one, Gyro! You suck!”</p><p>He rolled his eyes, following Mark and Boyd to the bowling alley; but he kept a good distance between them so he wouldn’t murder right in front of a child. <br/>The bowling alley was exactly as you would imagine, the only difference being that it didn’t smell of old shoes and the place was actually really clean. Gyro could see his twig self in the reflection of the unused bowling balls. At least the illusion made him look a bit more muscular. </p><p>Boyd put on Gucci bowling shoes as fast he grabbed the heaviest bowling ball possible, which was the size of his head. Without asking, he started already, getting strike after strike. </p><p>Mark relaxed and sat down, going back to his phone when his son did whatever. </p><p>Gyro sat across from him and annoyingly crossed his arms again. “Soooo… are you concerned about Gloria and Ellie now? We have to come up with something, dumbass.” </p><p>Mark held up his index finger at him while he continued to text with his other hand. After a minute he finally responded. “Gloria? No. Ellie? Of course. But there really isn’t anything we can do soooooo…like you said, it’s not like he’s going to kill them without getting his hands on us first.”</p><p>“I know. That’s the issue. We can’t just leave the mansion, but we also can’t leave them there or we’ll never see them again.” </p><p>“They’ve escaped jail all the time, I’m sure they’ll figure something out.”</p><p>“Unbelievable.” Gyro stood up and started doing that thing where he paced out of stress. “Maybe… if I can get my hands on some tools and a God Bot I can reprogram it to be on our side to help us with the rescue mission because we obviously can’t do it by ourselves. Especially you.” </p><p>“LOL don’t, like, ALL of your robots turn evil or something? I don’t see how that would be any help!” Mark began tweeting about how dumb Gyro was and also messaging in the Anti-Gyro groupchat.</p><p>He had a point but Gyro got defensive anyway. “They’re already evil so it’s not like I could make it any worse if I at least tried!” </p><p>“Hey man, if you wanna go outside, fight a God Bot, capture it, reprogram it, and hopefully have it be on our side, be my guest.”</p><p>“Oh, you think you’re so snarky, don’t you?” He bit. “Fine. We’ll come up with another plan. How about this?” Gyro got all up in Mark’s personal space like a little bitch. “If you think your robots don’t turn evil, why don’t you break back into Waddle and build us an army because you’re the one who built the God Bots to begin with. Am I wrong?” He paused. “Or, better yet, YOU reprogram them if you’re so confident in your inventing abilities.” </p><p>Mark held his hands up and closed his eyes “Alright alright you got me. FINEEEEE I will attempt your STUPID plan!” He paused for a moment. “Because I have nothing else better to do.”</p><p>“Now we only need to figure out a way to actually get our hands on one or more without being kidnapped!”</p><p>Before the conversation could move any further, Boyd walked over having already worn down the floor the ball rolled across. “Is it true?” His voice was quiet and concerned. </p><p>Mark turned to look at Boyd before scruffing his hair. “Is what true, bud?”</p><p>“That Steelbeak kidnapped Aunt Gloria and Mom…” </p><p>Mark stayed silent, trying to think of something to say to that. Both him and Gyro were caught red handed talking about such a serious topic in front of him. Boyd continued on. </p><p>“Why aren’t you trying harder to get them back? You- you saw what he did to mom last time.” </p><p>Mark sighed “We’re trying, bud.”</p><p>“No you’re not! You just decided to do something! You didn’t care until just now!” That was the first time Boyd had ever yelled at Mark, and Gyro got sick  satisfaction from it. It was also the first time either of them actually saw him get angry. “Aunt Gloria and Mom are the only people that try to raise me and you’re just shrugging the situation off like it’s nothing! He’s probably hurting them right now and they’re suffering why you continue- while you continue to be on your phone and take silly pictures of yourself! You’re a terrible dad!” Boyd started crying in the middle of his sentence. “Dr. Gearloose was a better dad than you ever were! I’m tired of pretending to hate him just for your sake!” </p><p>Mark widened his eyes, not expecting his son to blow up at him. But something in particular caught his attention. “I’m sorry, what now?” </p><p>Boyd wiped his tears away “I’m sorry Dr. Gearloose, but I can’t keep pretending anymore! My mom is in trouble and we have to do something about it!”</p><p>Gyro sighed, resting a hand on Boyd’s shoulder. “It’s okay. It’s getting hard for me to act too.”</p><p>“What is going on?!!!!”</p><p>Gyro turned to Mark. “Ya know, Mark. This whole time, for 50 chapters, you have pretended that you were the one who built Boyd. Why do you feel the need to lie to everyone, including yourself and Ellie? All you did was copy his programming to build other robots yourself!” </p><p>Mark put his hands up. “Techhhhhhnicalllllyyyy I did create Boyd! He wasn’t cool when I found him in the dump but I took him in and made him cool! I gave him new speakers so he could play my mixtapes and everything!”</p><p>Boyd started tearing up again and bawled his fists. “You’re tricking Mom and Aunt Gloria and- and everyone! I was mean to Dr. Gearloose for your sake but I love him more than you! How can I view you as a dad if you’re going to let mom die?! I don’t want you as a dad anymore! I just want mom and I to get away from you!” </p><p>Gyro gasped. “Boyd, I don’t think now is the time to-”</p><p>“No! I want to hear what he has to say!”</p><p>For once in his life, Mark was at a loss for words. “Okayyyyyyyy I feel really attacked right now and everyone seems to be ganging up on me sooooooooo” He pointed to the exit door with his thumb. “Imma just,” He slowly got up “Go. BYEEEEE!” and ran out the room.</p><p>Gyro and Boyd watched him leave.</p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>Gloria and her newfound ally, sort of, sat together by a pile of shit as they ate their frozen turkey sandwiches on their lunch break. The day was far from over . </p><p>“OY!” Glomgold spit, pointing to Gloria’s sandwich. “YOU GONNA EAT THAT!?” </p><p>Gloria looked at her sandwich in disgust before throwing it at him. “Knock yourself out.”</p><p>Glomgold caught the sandwich mid air and ate it in one bite like a feral dog. He made several disgusting noises as he choked on the sandwich, spitting it back out and then shoving it down his throat again. “DID YOU PUT ENOUGH SHIT IN YOUR MIC?!” He pointed to her collar, his mouth still obnoxiously full.  “YOU KNOW! SO THEY CAN’T HEAR US AND CATCH US TRYING TO COME UP WITH AN ESCAPE PLAN!” </p><p>“If you keep yelling, yeah, they’ll hear us!”</p><p>“DON’T YOU TELL ME WHAT TO DO, GLADIS!” </p><p>Gloria held her hands up like she was praying “For the LAST TIME! My name is GLORIA NOT GLADIS! Get it right or I’ll start calling you…” Gloria paused to think of a name that would be insulting to him “Scrooge”</p><p>“EWWW GROSS! FINE, WHATEVER! I JUST WON’T SAY YOUR NAME AT ALL FROM NOW ON!” He definitely was going to say her name, or not her name, again sometime soon but Gloria let him think that he would be smart enough to stop. He jumped up, turning to her in a scuttle. “Can I ask YOU a question?” </p><p>Gloria sighed “What now?”</p><p>“Well, people are saying that Steelbeak is a God, but I am the true GOD!” He announced, throwing his fists in the air. “...but do you think Steelbeak is a better dictator than me. If I had a grade on being a dictator… would I get an A?” </p><p>“Well, you DID put me and my friends through a horrendous camp for a few months. But Steelbeak is MUCH more threatening. Overall I’d give your reign as dictator a solid B-.”</p><p>“WOT?!” He stomped his foot before plopping back down on his ass. “YOU’RE JUST SAYING THAT BECAUSE YOU’RE JEALOUSSSSS!” </p><p>“Jealous of you?! Right…” The two didn’t speak for a few awhile until Gloria piped up again. “I don’t get it… You wanted me and Ellie dead right? That was the whole point of sending us to the summer camp. So why the change of heart, Flintheart?”</p><p>“THAT’S FLINTHEART GODGOLD TO YOU!” He screamed, but went silent as he started to scratch his beard in deep thought. Or however deep his thoughts could go which wasn’t very deep at all. “I dunno…” He shrugged. “I guess I secretly wanted a…” He leaned in closer to Gloria, blushing. “A real family. I didn’t realize that until, like, just now.” Glomgold started getting more character development which was horrifying to say the least. But he never got to see therapy so he used Gloria as his free trial to “share feelings” or whatever. “I got scared I would mess up being an uncle so I decided to push everyone away and I only ended up letting Ellie get hurt by Steelbeak and eventually killed. As for you. Yeah. I don’t care about you.” He added. </p><p>Gloria was nodding along while he spoke. “And you don’t have any sort of backup file or whatever to bring Ellie back? Is there anything Mark could do? Imma be honest with ya, chief, that story struck a chord in my empty black heart. I wanna help you out.”</p><p>“Uh well, I know this is hard to believe but I’m not thaaaaat smart. I AM SMART, but not robo smart. I do know there are no backup flash drives. As for Mark,” He shrugged and made an “I dunno” sound, you know what I’m talking about. “Sooooooo Robo-Babeh is no more, I’d say. And I am a God.” </p><p>God Glomgold was impossible to talk to. “I’m sorry you lost your family, Glomgold. I really am.”</p><p>“I DON’T NEED YOUR PITY YOU-”</p><p>“Gloria?” A familiar voice asked. </p><p>“WHO?” Glomgold asked rhetorically.</p><p>Gloria whipped her head around to see who was talking to her. It was baby boy Fenton himself, bitches! “Oh hey! You’re the guy who was fired!... oh sorry about that…”</p><p>He smiled sheepishly. “It’s okay. I get paid to be GizmoDuck, er, did before all this happened.” </p><p>“Yeah! Speaking of GizmoDuck, where the FUCK have you been during all of this?!”</p><p>Fenton looked at Glomgold.</p><p>“Oh… I see…” He turned to Gloria. “I may or may have not shot him down and executed the suit thinking it was him during my reign.”</p><p>“Yeah he ruined it and I can’t find Gyro anywhere.” He sighed. “Not that matters since we’re here now.” </p><p>Gloria used her hand to cover the mic part of her collar and whispered “I know where Gyro is. He can help fix the suit but we have to come up with a way to escape.”</p><p>Fenton followed her lead and covered his own mic as he spoke. “What? Where is he?!” He whispered. </p><p>“Have you heard of Miss Glamour? It’s Mark Beak’s mom. We’ve been camping out there until I was caught.”</p><p>“MARK BEAKS HAS A MOM?!” Glomgold shouted.</p><p>Fenton ignored him, along with Gloria. His eyes widened. “Of course! I never checked the place because I figured Gyro would be nowhere near a family member of Mr. Beaks.” He put a thumb to his chin. “That was very clever of him.”</p><p>“Your name is Fenton, right? Do you have any idea on how we could escape?”</p><p>“Yep! Fenton. Fenton Crackshell.” He held out his hand to shake Gloria’s. “Nice to meet you. Formally this time.” He stood back up. “But, um, yeah… I’ve been trying to figure out a way out of here for weeks but the God Bots are impossible to avoid. I was lucky enough to be working in the capitol building yesterday so I figured that was my shot since I was above ground… that didn’t go so well.” </p><p>“Why? What happened in the capitol building?”</p><p>While the two adults were talking, Glomgold continued to sit and shuffled his feet back and forth in the dirt and mud.</p><p>“I tried hacking into some God Bots software when they were standing outside some science lab, but Steelbeak exited and caught me red handed… I’m supposed to be executed this Sunday so…” He laid a hand over his forehead. “It was stupid of me. I heard him talking in there but I figured he would be more occupied for just a bit longer. I know hacking into Steelbeak’s personal God Bots sounds stupid, but I figured if I did so successfully I could’ve taken him down before my escape.” </p><p>“That’s so weird… What would Steelbeak be doing in a science lab of all places?”</p><p>“I don’t know but he left some girl crying in there. Maybe he’s experimenting on people now.” He frowned. “He’s so messed up.” </p><p>“Wait, what girl? How did she look?!”</p><p>“Ummmm… I wasn’t paying that much attention.” He admitted. “She was a white duck with a messy bun but that’s all I can recall. Why?” </p><p>Gloria’s jaw dropped and turned to look at Glomgold to see if he was catching any of this. He wasn’t. He was too busy playing in the mud. “Glomgold, I think Fenton is talking about Ellie! I think she may be alive!”</p><p>“WOT!?” He looked up at Fenton with his large bushy eyebrows narrowed. “How would YOU KNOW?!”</p><p>Fenton raised his hands up in the air in defense. “I don’t even know who you’re talking about!” </p><p>“Ellie is Gomgold’s niece who also happens to be a robot. Long story. But anyways we gotta help her! Steelbeak has some weird beef with her and the fact that she’s still alive means that she is in even more danger.”</p><p>“Oh goodness no.” He shook his head. “That must’ve been the robot he was talking about reprogramming when I was escorted away.” </p><p>“ROBO-BABEH?!” </p><p>Fenton ignored him. “I’m sorry but I think she’s already been reprogrammed by now…” He trailed off for a second. His face lit up. “But if we can retrieve her I bet Gyro can do something! He’s changed a robot’s programming just with his words before!” </p><p>“What are you talking about? He’s never mentioned that to me before.”</p><p>“Oh,” Fenton rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. “I guess he still doesn’t like to talk about it…”</p><p>Now Gloria was getting worried. “Talk about what?!”</p><p>“Back in Japan, Boyd was going haywire and Gyro was about to shut him down but stopped him last minute by convincing him he was good. That’s the best way I can describe it.” </p><p>Gloria sat there for a moment “No that’s not right. Gyro has never met Boyd before. How would he know him?”</p><p>“Wait. Did he tell you he didn’t know Boyd?” Fenton started to look concerned. Gyro was always an enigma to him, but he didn’t want to rat him out either. </p><p>“Yeah! They both acted like they didn’t even know each other! How does Gyro know him?!”</p><p>“Gyro… built Boyd years ago with his old mentor.” </p><p>“Wait… so Gyro built Boyd and not Mark?” Gloria got up. Now she was pissed. “So everyone knew about this except for me?! GOD! Even Mark was involved in this lie?! What the fuck?!”</p><p>Fenton put his hands in the air. “Woah, I’m not claiming you're the only one who doesn’t know, I promise! I don’t know what you mean by Mark being involved with the lie, but if you didn’t know I’m sure your other friends didn’t, er, don’t know either…” </p><p>“I still don’t understand why he didn’t tell me! We have been around Boyd and Mark for months and he didn’t think to tell me?! I’m gonna kill him…”</p><p>Fenton began twiddling his thumbs. “Are we still going to come up with an escape plan?” He squeaked out.</p><p>Glomgold finally piped up “ARGH! FINALLY! I THOUGHT YOU TWO WOULD NEVER SHUT UP! LET’S GET SHARKS INVOLVED!”</p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0029"><h2>29. Buddy</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Ellie’s body jerked from another bolt of pain and her eyes shot open again. She let out another tortured cry, the realization of what was happening hitting her. If only her body allowed her to stay shut down throughout it all. At the moment she would have rather been dead. However long she had been out wasn’t long enough. </p><p>Trying to curl in on herself as a coping mechanism didn’t work, she was restrained down to the science lab table again. The pain seemed 10x worse when she was forced to remain still on her back. </p><p>She threw her head to the side, gluing her eyes shut as she started screaming louder. “Make it stop!” Ellie started begging, not even knowing if anyone was in the room with her. “I’ll do anything! I promise! I’ll-“ Another, more intense shock of pain shut her up. She bit her lip, whimpering out a pained groan. “I’ll tell you everything!”</p><p>The room was silent. No one was there and Ellie was left to continue being in anguish for hours on end. Eventually her voice gave out and her body was too weak to continue struggling, forcing her to remain motionless. Ellie focused her lifeless stare on the flickering fluorescent light above her, mouth slightly ajar. </p><p>After what seemed like an eternity, someone finally opened the science lab doors again. Ellie couldn’t see who it was but she knew that it was Steelbeak. He walked closer so she was able to look at him and yanked at her hair so she was forced to. “ARE YOU FINALLY READY TO TALK NOW?!” He screamed at her. His patience was running very thin and at this point he was fine with letting her shut down permanently from all the pain.</p><p>Ellie couldn’t manage a response but she nodded faintly, which was very hard to do with how tight of a grip he had on her head. </p><p>He pushed her head away from his hand before reaching in his pocket to turn off the remote. “Okay. I’m shutting this off for 2 minutes. You have 2 minutes to tell me everything I need to know. If you don’t I won’t hesitate to keep it on until you die from exhaustion, pain, whichever comes first. Got it?!”</p><p>“O-okay.” She stammered out, though it was hardly audible. “They’re in- they’re in Miss Glamour’s mansion. Please… please don’t hurt Boyd.” </p><p>“Miss Glamour’s mansion…. Interesting… and who all is there?! Are they all there?! I swear if you are hiding anything more from me…” He trailed off.</p><p>“No. No I’m not lying. They’re all there.” She gulped, the aftershock of the pain still very much present. “What’s the real reason why you want us? I know it’s not just because of me.” </p><p>“While I was still serving as your idiot uncle’s right hand man, he mentioned how you and your friends took down Mouse. He was one of the biggest contributors to F.O.W.L. and the fact that you killed him off so easily, I knew that all of you posed as a threat. I have to take you all down if I, and F.O.W.L. are to succeed. I had originally quit but let’s just say F.O.W.L. wanted me back after my rise to power.” He smirked. </p><p>It was an absolutely terrible idea for Ellie to speak her mind at the moment but she wasn’t thinking properly. She was too upset and something broke inside her. Her reprogramming wouldn’t let her take it anymore after she was forced to withstand so much pain. “You lied to me. You said you loved me back! You- why? Mark would never do this to me. Nobody in the right mind would fall in love with you but I did! You drive me crazy! You did something to me didn’t you?! Admit it!” She demanded of him. “You can reprogram me all you want but I’ll find out what you did over and over again! I’ll keep fighting it just as I’m doing now! Sure. You got me. I love you. But I’m going to fucking kill you, even if it hurts me in the process!” </p><p>Steelbeak heard enough. He triggered the part of Ellie’s brain with the remote again while he stomped away to the nearest God Bots who were there guarding him. “I want you to reprogram it again. Take away its voice and all of its emotions. It’s only purpose now is to track everyone in Miss Glamour’s mansion and bring them all here. Mark Beaks is first. Then the child and finally the other guy I can never remember.” He slammed the door behind himself leaving the two God Bots alone with Ellie.</p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p><p> </p><p>Gyro and Boyd were still in the bowling alley and had been sitting in silence for about an hour. Gyro simply laid a hand on Boyd’s knee as he continued to cry, handing him tissues every now and then. </p><p>“What are we going to do now, Dr. Gearloose?” Boyd finally asked. “I don’t think my da- Mr. Beaks, is going to reprogram the Bots anymore…” </p><p>“This place isn’t going to be safe for very much longer. We need to somehow get across town and back to my lab so we can figure something out. Boyd, you’ll have to help us both out with any means necessary while we try to leave. Do you think you could do that?”</p><p>Boyd’s eyes widened. “But- but I don’t want to hurt anyone.”</p><p>“And I hope you won’t have to but I can’t think of any other way we can get back to my lab without being caught and captured.”</p><p>“Are we just going to leave Mr. Beaks here?” It was hard for Boyd to not say dad anymore, but he didn’t want to. Not if he wasn’t even going to help Mom out. </p><p>Gyro sighed. “I’ll leave that up to you to decide. Personally I’m fine with ditching him.”</p><p>Boyd thought for a second, blowing into his tissue again. “I am mad at him, but I don’t want something to happen to him either. He should come along so I can protect him.” </p><p>Gyro smiled. Even after everything Mark had said and done to him, Boyd still looked for the best in him. “Then we will tell him our plan when he gets done with his- whatever he has going on at the moment.”</p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>Steelbeak was in the same position in his office like last time. He smoked his third cigar that day as he watched his city from his window, waiting on the God Bots to return to him with Ellie reprogrammed yet again.</p><p>Finally, after what felt like hours, the doors opened. Two God Bots, the ones who had reprogrammed Ellie, escorted her in before turning to stand guard. Steelbeak didn’t bother to turn his head before she was standing beside him as he continued to relax on the sofa. She had her arms placed politely behind her as she waited for a command. </p><p>“Can it speak?”</p><p>“No sir, not anymore.”</p><p>“Good.” Steelbeak got up and put out his cigar before turning his attention to Ellie. “Your orders are to go to Miss Glamour’s mansion, retrieve Mark Beaks and bring him back to me alive. Then, once he is here, you’ll go back and retrieve the others. Is that understood?”</p><p>She nodded once, her expression blanker than he had ever seen it.</p><p>“You’re dismissed.” Steelbeak sat back down on his sofa. The two God Bots left alongside Ellie before returning to their scheduled work places.</p><p>The worst part was, as Ellie exited the capitol building to head to Miss Glamour’s, she was completely aware of what was going on. Her normal feelings, emotions, and thoughts were back in check but she had no control and wasn’t able to do anything about it. She could just observe what was happening from the inside. Behind a window. The wheel was in someone else’s hands now.</p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p><p> </p><p>“OY! ARE WE LEAVING YET! I’M HUNGRY AGAIN!” Glomgold whined, rolling on the ground. They still had another hour to go until who knows what. Gloria had no idea where they would be escorted for the night after work but she didn’t bother to ask about it because she didn’t care enough.</p><p>Fenton turned to Gloria and whispered. “Does he ever talk… quieter?” </p><p>“Nope. Never. Are you ready?”</p><p>He nodded. “Yes. And Glomgold will be of much use with his… personality. I think our chance of success is very probable.” </p><p>“That’s what I like to hear!” Gloria turned her attention to Glomgold who was just staring at the two of them with a pissed off expression. He wasn’t mad at them really, that's just how his face looks. “Alright, Glomgold. Do your thing!”</p><p>Glomgold made an scottish grunt noise before cockroach crawling over to a God Bot. “OY! GOD BOT! I GOTTA TAKE A SHIT! I COMMAND YOU TO ESCORT ME PRIVATELY TO THE BATHROOM OVER THERE!” He pointed to the porter potties across the current area of the sewers they were in. “I DON’T WANT TO, UM… what did Fenton say, OH YEAH! I DON’T WANT TO GO OVER THERE WITHOUT A GUARD BECAUSE, UH… I THINK I’M SUPPOSED TO SAY I’M AFRAID OF GETTING BEAT UP!” </p><p>The God Bot stared at him. If he was able to express his emotions, he would’ve had something very interesting to say. “Follow me.” The God Bot escorted Glomgold who was trailing behind him. His stubby legs made it hard for him to walk as fast as the God Bot could.</p><p>“I HAVE ANOTHER QUESTION!” He yelled. “I AM AFRAID TO BE ALONE IN ROOMS SO WILL YOU ENTER THE PORTER POTTY WITH ME?!” </p><p>God Bots have no need for currency but boy did this guy need a raise. He stepped into the porter potty like Glomgold wanted. But instead of Glomgold running in behind him, Fenton did instead and shut the door behind him at a rapid pace, immediately getting to work.</p><p>Gloria walked up to stand next to Glomgold as they waited.</p><p>“UHHHH!” Glomgold threw his head back. “HOW LONG IS THIS GOING TO TAKE?! I’M BORED!”</p><p>“Shut up! Give Fenton time to work!”</p><p>“WOT?! DON’T SPEAK TO ME THAT WAY, GLADIS!”</p><p>“I CAN SPEAK TO YOU HOWEVER I SEE FIT, SCROOGE!”</p><p>“I TOLD YOU NOT TO CALL ME THAT!” </p><p>Fenton exited the disgusting ass potty, the God Bot right behind him. He wiped his hands on his pants. “I don’t know how good of a job I did but hopefully everything turns out okay.” He pointed his thumb to the God Bot behind him. “I’m not good at reprogramming. That’s more of Gyro’s thing. But it must’ve worked if he didn’t kill me yet.”</p><p>“Is there a question or something we could ask him to make sure that he’s on our side?”</p><p>“Of course.” Fenton turned. “Excuse me, sir-”</p><p> </p><p>“MOVE!” Glomgold pushed him out of the way. Fenton tumbled over, almost falling into a pile of excrement. Glomgold shoved his Glomgold cockroach finger into the God Bot’s chest. “YOO ESCORT US OUT OF HERE AND TO MISS GAMERS-”</p><p>“Glamour’s.” Gloria corrected.</p><p>“WHATEVER! ESCORT US TO HER MANSION AND KEEP US SAFE OR WHATEVER!”</p><p> </p><p>The God Bot shrugged. “Aight.” He pulled out a remote and unlocked their collars. Something only God Bots and Steelbeak were able to do. </p><p>Gloria smiled and yeeted her collar into the sewers. “Fenton you did it! You’re a genius!”</p><p>“R-really?” He blushed, scratching the back of his neck. “Um, thanks.” </p><p>“WHATEVER! LET’S MOVE!” </p><p>The God Bot put his hands out. “Okay. Woah. No.” He was speaking specifically to Glomgold before turning to everyone else. “I need to pretend I’m taking you to Steelbeak. I’ll tell the others you were not following protocol.” </p><p>Glomgold stomped his foot. “NO! I HATE THAT PLAN! I WANNA GO!”</p><p>“Oh my god Glomgold, shut the fuck up! Let the God Bot do what he needs to do.” Gloria stopped for a moment “You shouldn’t be called God Bot anymore. What’s your new name, buddy?”</p><p>“Ummm…” He stared at Gloria for a second. “Buddy.” </p><p>“Perfect! Alright, lead the way, Buddy!”</p><p>Buddy did an “aye aye, captain” motion with his hand, whatever that’s called, and escorted them to the sewage exit. He turned to the other God Bots manning the station. Buddy gestured to the three of them. “These 3 have broken protocol 6.”</p><p>One God Bot gasped. “No way dude. That’s, like, not fucking chill.” </p><p>“God I know right?! Well anyways, see ya later dudes. Party at Steve’s is still going on Tuesday, right?”</p><p>“You know it!”</p><p>“Ayeeeee! See you guys there then!” Buddy gave the God Bots a signature Got Bot handshake bro fist bump before continuing to escort the trio away.</p><p>He smiled. “See? Easy right? You guys are totes chill.” </p><p>“You rock, Buddy! I think we are gonna be friends after this is all over!” Gloria gave him a high five.</p><p>“Yeah! I would love to make macaroni art with you guys sometime!” </p><p>Fenton beamed. “I LOVE macaroni art!” </p><p>“UHHH! SHUT UP!” Glomgold demanded. “MACARONI ART SUCKS! FINGER PAINTING IS BETTER, BITCHES!!!!” He lowered his voice for once. “I can make killer abs using finger paint.”</p><p>Buddy ignored him, not being as fond of Glomgold as he was Gloria and Fenton. He stopped, pointing to a nearby exit. “That’s the back exit. If we go that way, I can scan my card easy with no security and then BAM, we’re out in the city again.” </p><p>“Wow…” Fenton said. “It’s that easy?”</p><p>“Well yeah.” Buddy shrugged. “Steelbeak sucks, but he doesn’t want his employees to walk through security all the time so as long as we got cards we good!” He pulled his card out and showed it. His photo was terrible, like your 6th grade yearbook photo. </p><p>“That’s nice to hear!” Fenton clasped his hands together. </p><p>“Anyway…” Buddy scratched the back of his neck, even though it was metal. “You mind if I tag along with you to Miss Glamour’s mansion? This place kinda sucks.” </p><p>Gloria was the first to answer him.“Dude! Hell yeah you’re staying with us! We got macaroni art to make!” </p><p>Buddy smiled. This was the first time he was truly happy. Except when he was partying with his bros. He could see them on the weekends and Tuesday nights so leaving them wasn’t that big of a deal. “Okay team! Let’s head out!”</p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0030"><h2>30. Evil Monologues And Dramatic Soap Operas</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Mark sat on the grass in the front yard. Of course he wasn’t directly on the grass, he was on a golden silk picnic blanket to protect him from nature and he didn’t need to be worried about being seen. His mom’s gates around the house blocked him from sight easily. At the moment he was taking emo selfies with black and white filters, tears streaming down his face. Sure, maybe he was kinda going back to his Deathblade phase, but his son literally just roasted his ass. Plus posting sad pictures would get tons of hot girls to follow him and make him feel better. Ellie was hot and all but she was like a good 7.5 out of 10. She claimed she was built with perfect beauty standards, but did she have Kim Karquackian lips? No she fucking didn’t. Mark was just being real. </p><p>The more selfies Mark posted the more he began to feel better. After an hour of sitting on his Gucci blanket to sob, he wiped his eyes and put his phone away to start heading back inside until he saw a small silhouette in the distance come towards him.</p><p>“Hello??? Sorry, I don’t do autographs today! Come back on Friday at 5:30! ‘Kay thankssssss!”</p><p>The figure kept approaching him. He kind of just stood there waiting to see who it was. It was too dark to see. His main question was how the fuck they got passed the locked gates but whatever. Crazy fans were crazy fans. Maybe they would pay him good money for an autograph since it wasn’t scheduled. </p><p>“Look, I don’t normally do this but if you really want an autograph that badly, I’ll write you one for $80 bucks. Deal?”</p><p>No response.</p><p>He gasped when he saw it was Ellie. </p><p>“OMG ELLIE?!” He immediately hugged her tightly before letting her go to look at her again. “Where did you go?! What did you do?! God I can’t believe you left me here all alone with Gyro of all people but it’s okay I forgive you!”</p><p>Her response was just a blank, emotionless stare. </p><p>He waited for a minute before speaking up again. “Kayyyyyyyyy…. Awkwarddddddd… Are you mad at me or something?”</p><p>Still no response.</p><p>Mark sighed. “Look, to be honest I kind of forgot what I said or did that caused you to be mad at me to begin with so whatever it was, I’m sorry. We good now?”</p><p>At first Mark thought Ellie was going in for another hug. Instead she picked him up over her shoulder without any hesitation and started to walk in the direction she came from.</p><p>Mark shrugged it off and continued to text people.</p><p>After a while he spoke up again. “Why are you being so quiet? Also, like, where are we going? Home is that way!” He pointed to Miss Glamour’s house.</p><p>Ellie continued to stare blankly ahead. They passed a few guard bots and they all waved to her politely, knowing she was on their side. Others did peace signs. </p><p>This really confused Mark but then again, what didn’t?! “Yoooooo Ellie?? Hey girl, why are the God Bots being so nice to you?! I’ve never seen them do that before.”</p><p>“...Is it like a robot thing?”</p><p>“... where are we going again?”</p><p>“Did I mention that I was sorry for something? God this silent treatment is killing me! Plus the way you’re carrying me is like really bad for my back!”</p><p>“... Oh my god! Is this because I wanted more hot babes to follow me on twitter?! I swear I can’t control how hot people are! And I can’t dictate who and who doesn’t follow me! I can’t help that people, especially hot ones, just like me! You can’t blame me! You’re hot too ‘kay? Just not 10/10. Maybe you’re a 7? 6? It’s because you’re flat, but your face is pretty!”</p><p>“...okay you’re acting weird. Please say something now!”</p><p>“...Can I get down now? I’m cold and you’ve been walking the wrong way from mom’s house for, like, 20 minutes now!”</p><p>“Ellie?”</p><p>“Elllliiieeeeeeee?”</p><p>“ELLIE!”</p><p>“... this sucks…”</p><p>Mark sighed and started to give an update about his current, and very strange situation on Twitter, but right in the middle of his tweet, Mark accidentally dropped his phone.</p><p>“Shit! Ellie, wait stop a minute I gotta grab my phone, it dropped.”</p><p>“Ellie! Dude! My phone! You’re walking away from it!”</p><p>“ELLIE!”</p><p>“How will people know what I’m going through now?!”</p><p>Mark started to struggle against Ellie but nothing to actually harm her. He was just wiggling.</p><p>“Ellie I am not joking around now, let me go!”</p><p>He tried pushing himself off of her, but she hardly budged.</p><p>“I think my phone dropped in a puddle!”</p><p>“ELLIE!”</p><p>He tried kicking, again, not super hard but enough to be an annoyance.</p><p>“Okay I love you and all but I may write a mean tweet about you once you let me go. This isn’t cool.”</p><p>After a few minutes of silence Mark finally put two and two together. This wasn’t Ellie. He started to really pry himself away from her, not holding back on trying to hurt her. He figured that if it was the real Ellie he would apologize later.</p><p>It was this that set Ellie off. She threw him onto the asphalt, placing a foot on top of him to hold him down.</p><p>“Um, OWWWWW! Okay, Fake-Ellie, you’re totally gonna be #cancelled on Twitter as soon as I get my phone back!”</p><p>She decked him the face, knocking him out.</p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>As soon as Glomgold and his new, unfavorable, squad stepped onto Miss Glamour’s porch, Buddy turned around.</p><p>“You guys sure this is the place? I don’t want to get #cancelled on Twitter.”</p><p>Gloria nodded. “Yep! This is it! Thanks again, Buddy!”</p><p>“No prob, babe.” He winked before knocking loudly on the front door. He left a dent because of super hot robo strength. </p><p>Falcon was the one to open the door for them.</p><p>Buddy was the one to speak first! “Hi! I’ve retrieved your friends and we are going to make macaroni art together!” </p><p>Gloria shoved past Buddy and Falcon to let herself in. “He was reprogrammed. He's chill now. Hey, is Gyro and Boyd around?”</p><p>“I’M STILL STARVING!”</p><p>Falcon rubbed his temples. “I’m not getting paid enough for this.” He opened the door wider to let the rest of them in. Even Glomgold. He didn’t question anything anymore. “They went to the private bowling alley a few hours ago. That’s all I know.”</p><p>Glomgold cockroach crawled over to the kitchen to shove all the food he could down his beefy throat.</p><p>“Make yourself at home.” Falcon scoffed. He wasn’t going to have fun explaining this to Miss Glamour later. </p><p>“I’ll keep an eye on him and make sure he’s a polite house guest.” Buddy offered. </p><p>“That’d be delightful.” Falcon’s comment was sarcastic, but Buddy didn’t pick up on that and gave him a bro fist. Falcon wasn’t willing to give one so Buddy had to pick up his hand and force one. </p><p>While all that shit was going on, Fenton turned to Gloria. “This is a nice place! Do you know where the bowling alley is?”</p><p>“Nope! I dunno about you but I’m going to change out of these horrid prison clothes that smell like shit, tears, and whatever being buried alive smells like. I can help you find something to change into too.”</p><p>Fenton looked down at himself. “Yeah… that’d probably be best.” </p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>Ellie shoved Mark to the ground of Steelbeak’s office before stepping back to keep a close eye on him and guard the door. </p><p>Mark had just woken up from being knocked out and it felt like the worst fucking hangover of his life. He groaned, pushing himself off the ground to sit criss cross applesauce. Homie wasn’t standing up yet. It took a second, but he finally decided it would be a kinda good idea to see where he was. He looked up and locked eyes with Steelbeak. “Oh, uh, hi I guess? I know last time we saw each other you beat up my girlfriend and then wanted to kill me but like… can you get me a new phone before we start doing dramatic shit?” </p><p>Steelbeak ignored him and looked back at Ellie. “Good work. You may return to the science lab to power down for the night.”</p><p>Ellie nodded before exiting the room, quietly closing the door. She couldn’t control what she was doing but she wasn’t going to slam it like a rude bitch.</p><p>“YOOOOO! BABE, er, FAKE-BABE! CAN YOU GET ME A PHONE?!?!!!” She was already gone. “UGH! THIS SUCKS!” Mark finally stood up, brushing off his Gucci clothes. They had been slightly wrinkled when Ellie had thrown him to the ground. Great. Now he would have to get them professionally cleaned sometime this week. “Soooo… sup I guess?” </p><p>Steelbeak kicked him back onto the ground. “SHUT UP!”</p><p>“OWWWWWW!”</p><p>Steelbeak walked away from Mark, crossing his hands behind his back to look out his window. “You! You have been the biggest pain in my ass since the summer camp. For months I have wanted you dead but every time I was close to finally ending your life you always snuck away like the rodent you are! But this time?” Steelbeak did a signature evil chuckle “You’re not going anywhere! This place is heavily guarded with the most elite and sophisticated robots who will not hesitate to shoot you down where you stand.”</p><p>“Yeah I know dude, I’m the one who built them!”</p><p>Steelbeak continued. “Try to think about escaping and it’ll be your last thought. And as for your girlfriend… I have made sure that she was reprogrammed to only serve me. I rid her of her emotions and voice.”</p><p>Mark gasped. “Yo! That ain’t cool! She was a good kisser and everything!” </p><p>Steelbeak was about to continue his monologue that he spent 4 weeks memorizing. It was 8 note cards long but he decided to cut it short. He turned to look at Mark with an evil grin. “Yeah… I know.” Why continue on with a long ass monologue when getting down to the tea would be much more fun?</p><p>“You kissed my girlfriend?! That’s not cool man! Do you not know the bro code?!”</p><p>“Oh I am quite familiar with the so-called “bro code”… but I didn’t break it. It was Ellie who kissed me!”</p><p>“Wha-? No she wouldn’t! You crusty as hell, dipshit! I got the moves from years of being a player on Twitter and…” He eyed him up and down. “You don’t so…” </p><p>Steelbeak didn’t respond and instead turned back to look at the window. He skipped a few pages in his monologue to get to the good part. “Every minute here will be an endless cycle of torture and misery! Your screams will go unheard! Your blood will seep through the floors and your body will never see the light of day again!”</p><p>“... are you done?”</p><p>Steelbeak sighed before turning around to face Mark again. “God Bots! Get this idiot out of here!”</p><p>Two God Bots came in and scooped Mark up off the floor, dragging him to his jail cell. He didn’t even bother to walk, he just let his bots drag him where he needed to be dragged. </p><p>They threw him onto the ground, making sure to put one of the Steel Collars on him first before leaving.</p><p>“YOOO! WAIT! CAN I GET A PHONE NOW?!”</p><p>One God Bot turned around. “Will you shut the fuck up?!”</p><p> </p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>After what felt like forever, Gloria and Fenton came across what they assumed was the bowling alley. Based on the neon sign with a bowling ball next to it. It should be noted that they both were rocking new Gucci outfits because why not?</p><p>“Aunt Gloria?!!!!” Boyd jumped up running to her for a hug. “You’re okay! I was so scared!” By his voice, Gloria could tell he had been crying for quite some time. </p><p>Gloria hugged him tightly, trying not to cry herself. “I missed you, too!”</p><p>Gyro ran up and joined the hug. “Thank goodness you’re alright!” He let go off her, keeping a hold of her shoulders. “What happened? How did you manage to escape?!”</p><p>“I met up with Fenton and he reprogrammed a God Bot to take us here!” Gloria gestured to Fenton who was awkwardly standing behind her, rubbing his arm.</p><p>“Really?” Gyro raised a brow and looked at Fenton. “Good work, Crackshell. You must’ve learned it from me.” </p><p>“Oh, of course I did, Dr. Gearloose!” He stepped forward and greeted his previous mentor. “We actually came here to speak of reprogramming.”</p><p>“Oh right….” Gloria shoved Gyro off of her. “I’m mad at you! I almost forgot!”</p><p>“What?! Boyd and I were coming up with a plan to rescue you, I swear!” He put his arms up in defense, thinking that’s what Gloria was mad about. </p><p>“No. I’m mad that you’ve been lying to me for months about Boyd! Why would you do that?! After everything we have gone through! Are you serious?!”</p><p>Gyro gulped. Hopefully she was going on about the wrong information. He acted like he had no idea what she was talking about just in case. “Lie about Boyd?! What do you mean?! I would never!” </p><p>Gloria shoved him again, harder this time. “Don’t you fucking start with me, Gyro Gearloose! I will fuck you up! And I KNOW you are NOT lying to me AGAIN!”</p><p>At this point, Boyd just walked over to Fenton and watched what was going down. He didn’t understand why Aunt Gloria would be mad about it. Fenton decided to escort Boyd away so they could watch the tea go down at a safe distance.</p><p>Gyro took a step back. “I couldn’t tell you! Boyd may have changed but I couldn’t just go around and announce to everyone I was the guy who built the robot who destroyed all of Tokyo! That is left behind me! I am a new man!”</p><p>“Okay so why did you not bring up the fact that you at least built him! God, you even forced Boyd to lie to me too?! And for what?!”</p><p>“Because it was not my place to claim Boyd! Mark claimed he was his so I let him! Why would I argue with that?!”</p><p>“Um, so you could tell your girlfriend the fucking truth!”</p><p>Fenton piped up. “Wait, you guys are dating?”</p><p>Gyro ignored him. “Ellie wanted a kid and I let her have one! I wasn’t going to get in the way and I wasn’t going to start another fight between her and Mark as much as I hate the guy! Boyd is in the past so let it be! Me and him are on good terms and that’s all that matters!” </p><p>“So you have been lying to me, even when I was pregnant with your child, so you could keep your ego intact! Is that what you’re telling me right now?!”</p><p>Fenton’s eyes widened and he covered his mouth. Boy was getting so much tea thrown his way it reminded him of his Ma’ma’s soap operas.</p><p>“I wanted to leave it in the past! Old me created Boyd! There was no reason for me to bring it up! That’s it!”</p><p>“Of course there was a reason to bring it up! Boyd is here! He’s been here this entire time! It would be one thing if I never met him but he’s literally my best friend’s adopted child! He calls me his aunt! I deserved to know!”</p><p>“Okay okay! I’m sorry alright!? Is that what you wanted to hear?! You know now so it’s over with and we can move on!” </p><p>“I dunno, Gyro, can we move on?! Or do you have more secrets that you’re keeping from me?!”</p><p>He didn’t answer her question. “Just don’t tell Ellie, okay? It already upset Mark enough, I think. I can’t tell with him. But Ellie would be heartbroken to know I’m “technically” his dad! She fucking hates me!” </p><p>“Oh don’t worry, Gyro! I won’t tell Ellie, but you sure as hell will! I’m telling you right now! You’re not going to keep this a secret from us anymore!”</p><p>“I am absolutely not telling the killer robot!” He stomped his foot. “Boyd may have changed but she hasn’t! She threatened your life!” </p><p>“She’s not evil, she’s just “wildly misunderstood”! Does that sound about right to you, Gyro?!”</p><p>“My inventions are wildly misunderstood! Not Mark Beak’s! It’s better that thing didn’t come back with you!” </p><p>“Stop calling her a “thing”, asshole! She may have threatened my life but she also saved it numerous times! Are you just going to ignore that?!”</p><p>“Fine! I’m not good enough to protect you! Is that what you want to hear?! Huh?!” </p><p>“That’s not what I was saying and you know it!”</p><p>He scoffed. “I think it was!” </p><p>“Gyro Gearloose, I know you did not just fucking go there! I know damn well that you didn’t!”</p><p>He threw his hands in the air. “Well this is just great! It’s the camp argument all over again! How about we skip a few chapters ahead and make up!? I am too stressed to deal with this!” </p><p>“YOU’RE STRESSED?! YOU’RE STRESSED?! I was buried ALIVE! I thought I would never see you again! I was then imprisoned YET AGAIN and forced to do manual labor in the SEWERS while you sat in Miss Glamour’s house eating fine caviar!”</p><p>Gyro paused and he finally lowered his voice. “...Steelbeak did that to you?” </p><p>“YES! Among many other things!”</p><p>“God, I’m an idiot.” He closed his eyes. “I shouldn’t have snapped when you just escaped. I know an apology isn’t enough. We’ll come back to this, I promise. But we need to figure out a way to take down Steelbeak.” </p><p>“Oh I know that we are going to “come back to this” because I won’t let your scrawny ass get away from it!”</p><p>Boyd finally stepped between them. “Aunt Gloria, it’s okay! Please don’t be mad at him! I know he was wrong to lie but I did too! He just- he just didn’t want to cause issues in the middle of the camp when I showed up. His reasoning may have not been the best or make any sense, but at least he had a reason.” He insisted. “We were coming up with a plan to rescue both you and mom when you were gone!” </p><p>Gloria closed her eyes and sighed, finally letting herself calm down. “Alright. You’re right Boyd…” She looked up at Gyro. “I’m sorry, too. I didn’t see it from your perspective and I know that you were just trying to do the right thing…”</p><p>Gyro took her hand. “Don’t apologize. I was in the wrong and I shouldn’t have said what I did about Ellie.”  </p><p>Fenton finally jumped in. “Yeahhhh about that. We came here because we need your help to rescue and reprogram her. I’m not advanced enough to reprogram that advanced of a robot. The God Bots were difficult enough.” </p><p>Boyd looked up at Gyro for an answer. “What does he mean “reprogram”? Is she okay?!”</p><p>Gyro looked at both Fenton and Gloria. “Yeah, what do you mean?” </p><p>“Fenton overheard Steelbeak talking to her and plans about reprogramming her. That’s really all we know.”</p><p>“Goddamnit. Of course Steelbeak is making everything more complicated.” Gyro pinched in between his eyes. “Our plan was to reprogram God Bots but now that I think about it… how are we going to get enough of them? Mark insisted I wasn’t capable enough to do it so I yelled at him to do it but I don’t know where he is. Probably crying.” </p><p>“Well, some good news, we still have our reprogrammed God Bot that helped us escape! His name is Buddy! I’m sure we can easily reprogram enough to settle this!”</p><p>“How do we get enough without being caught?”</p><p>Boyd looked up at Gyro. “I know something I could do if we can get back to your lab. I could lead them to you!”</p><p>He gasped. “You, child, are a genius!” </p><p>“I know!” Boyd smiled. </p><p>“Dr. Gearloose, I know you're busy with reprogramming God Bots and all but if you have the time to rebuild my GizmoDuck suit, I would be more than happy to do my part!”</p><p>Gyro sighed. “I’ll squeeze it in.” </p><p>____________________________________________________________________________________</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0031"><h2>31. Dancing Queen</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Steelbeak approached Mark’s cell before turning to Ellie who he ordered to follow. “God Bot’s 054’s shift just ended so I’m going to need you to guard the cell for the next few hours. Got it?!” He spat. </p><p>Ellie, still emotionless, nodded. </p><p>“Good. When I come retrieve you tonight you head directly to Miss Glamour’s mansion to kidnap the kid.”</p><p>Ellie nodded again.</p><p>He smirked before turning to leave to do whatever evil dictators do. Another God Bot was scheduled to take over the shift, but Steelbeak stationed it somewhere else so Ellie could be there. That would surely fuck with Mark’s head before Steelbeak moved on to more physical torture later on. </p><p>Turning to face front, Ellie stood tall with her hands folded neatly in front of her, preparing to guard for the next few hours. She ignored Mark completely who, at the moment, was staring at her, dumbfounded.</p><p>“Heyyyyyyy it’s fake Ellie again?! Girl, you still mute or something?!” Mark got up long enough to sit back down in front of the cell bars.</p><p>No response. “‘Kay I guess so…”</p><p>“Hey did you manage to pick up my phone? You know, after you wouldn’t let me grab it?! You probably have it for evidence or something. Could I have that back?”</p><p>“... so is there a cafeteria here or something? Let me out. I want Spaghetti O’s!”</p><p>“... or maybe a sandwich…”</p><p>“Hey!” Mark reached his arm out the bars to poke Ellie. “Do you have Spaghetti O’s or not?!”</p><p>Mark banged his head against the bars “UGHHHHHH! I’m not used to being ignored! Everyone adores me! This is so lame!” He was too stupid to remember that literally everyone hated him back at the mansion except Ellie who dealt with his stupid ass but whatever. His ego was too high. </p><p>Being next to Mark, Ellie’s subconscious began a sad attempt at fighting the reprogramming. She twitched, managing a quick, yet fearful, glance at Mark before going back to guarding emotionlessly. If Steelbeak saw that “rebellious” move she just did, she’d be dead immediately. </p><p>Mark was too stupid to even notice Ellie’s attempt on getting him to notice her. “Okay yeah so anyways I’m still hungry and It’s like your job or whatever to watch after me here so go get me something! Make sure it hits at least one important food group! Oh and could you come back in less than 22 minutes? Thanksssssss!”</p><p>“... um hello?! Are you just going to stand here?! Ugh!”</p><p>“If you had a Twitter account I would have you reported and blocked by now.”</p><p>“...Do you like, not know how to make Spaghetti O’s or something?! God, even Boyd knows how to do that!”</p><p>Boyd! Boyd was her next target and there was absolutely nothing she could do about it. Mark had to realize she was still in there if she had any chance of stopping her reprogramming and getting their son out of danger. Ellie’s system flipped the hell out for a few seconds and she turned, falling on her knees in front of him. She desperately clung onto his hands through the bars. “Mark, you need to help me.” She whimpered. “I’m still here! I-” She twitched again before standing back up to continue staring blankly ahead in front of the cell. </p><p>“Ellie! You don’t need help making Spaghetti O’s! It's super easy! Jeez…”</p><p>This man was a lost cause. </p><p>He paused for a moment. “Hey… That was the first time you spoke, fake-Ellie! Woah what’s up with that?! Can you say something else?”</p><p>“Hello?”</p><p>“Ellie?” He poked her again.</p><p>“So are you going to get me dinner orrrrrr?”</p><p>“What did you mean that you’re still here?! Of course you’re here! DUH!”</p><p>“Hmmmm…. “I’m still here”... and  ”You need to help me”... God, Ellie, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”</p><p>A few more moments passed while his brain was trying to figure this out. “OHHHHHH! I get it now! Real Ellie is still in the program! Go me for figuring it out!” Mark high fived himself. “Real Ellie, if you can hear me, Mark says hi!”</p><p>Real Ellie was there. She still loved him, but damn she wanted to beat the shit out of him.<br/>____________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>Gyro, Gloria, Boyd, Buddy… and sadly Glomgold all stood outside the lab. Gyro pried the doors open. They were covered in a giant graffiti painting of Steelbeak. One of the God Bots probably did it from orders or in their freetime after they were all kidnapped. Gyro was offended either way. “Okay. Everyone, get in before someone sees us.” </p><p>And yes, they did leave without saying goodbye to Miss Glamour. They would see her again so it was fine. She wouldn’t care because she was just that chill.</p><p>“MOVE!” Glomgold shoved passed everyone, practically knocking Boyd over, as he cockroach crawled into the money bin. “IMMA SEE ALL YOUR SECRETS, SCROOOOOGIEEE!” He laughed and immediately began to rip open drawers and scatter papers and important documents all over the place like it was snowing.</p><p>“You’re only going to find math equations you don’t understand.” Gyro muttered, closing the door behind everyone. “Okay. So I’m going to pull out some files to start rebuilding the GizmoDuck suit, then, and only then, will we start kidnapping GodBots. Fenton, why don’t you start pulling out all the reprogramming files. And Gloria,” He threw her his Waddle phone since she still had a shitty flip phone. “Facetime the McDuck family and see if they’re okay. I need to make sure we don’t have to rescue them too.” </p><p>“Wait!” Boyd interrupted. “Shouldn’t we call my dad too? I’m still very worried! What if Steelbeak got to him too?!” Yes, Boyd was still a bit upset with Mark, but he was willing to call him dad again. Gloria comforted Boyd, saying Mark would come around. She didn’t think he would but she wasn’t going to make a kid feel like shit. Especially when it was still in his programming to view Mark as a father figure. </p><p>...even if he was a liar and a cheat. </p><p>Boyd had spent about an hour looking for Mark in the mansion before finally being convinced by the others to leave. They had to get to work as soon as possible. It made him sad but he understood. </p><p>“You need to try to call him, Aunt Gloria! Please!” He clung to her, using his puppy dog eyes to his advantage. </p><p>Boyd must’ve known that puppy dog eyes will always work on Gloria. “I’ll call him as soon as I’m done checking on the McDuck family. Okay?”</p><p>“Do you think Huey will be there?” </p><p>“Oh I’m sure he will be! Is he your friend?” Gloria started tapping on the screen to start the video call.</p><p>Boyd smiled and nodded. “Yes! He convinced Dr. Gearloose not to kill me!” He chimed. </p><p>“He WHAT?!”</p><p>“...I said Huey convinced Dr. Gearloose not to kill me. Back in Japan.” He whispered, thinking he was in trouble. </p><p>“Let’s put a pin in that while we check up on the McDuck’s.” She knew that she really shouldn’t start another argument with Gyro again but that was a bombshell that he should get a punch in the face for. Gloria hit call and waited for someone to pick up on the other line.</p><p>It was obviously Louie, eating a bag of cheese puffs. Orange dust was all over his hoodie and beak. How he got a hold of Scrooge’s phone was a mystery. “Sup. You interrupted my Minecraft game.”</p><p>“Hey green one! Sorry I don’t remember your name but anyways, Gyro, Fenton, Boyd, and I are all safe and in the lab. Is your family okay?”</p><p>He shrugged. “Eh. Huey still cries all the time but I’m doing just great. Uncle Scrooge just broke out of some prison I guess. He left Glomgold behind so that’s pretty cool.” </p><p>“So everyone in your family is safe and accounted for?”</p><p>“We’re never safe and accounted for, this is the McDuck family, but sure.” </p><p>Boyd leaned in so he could see the screen and waved. “Hello! Could I speak to Huey, please?”</p><p>“Oh, hey, Boyd! Haven’t seen you since the party! Looking good!” He gave him a finger gun gesture and winked. “But yeah. He’s crying in the bathroom I think. Gimme a sec.” </p><p>“Thanks!” </p><p>Boyd politely took the phone from Gloria to go sit and wait for his best friend to be put on the phone. (Yes, Huey was at the camp too but they didn’t run into each other because plot and Astro Boyd just came out so...). </p><p>Gyro was already working on the GizmoDuck suit across the lab with his army of Lil Bulbs that had waited for his return. Gloria didn’t want to start a fight with him again but she had to mention it. She walked over to him. </p><p>“Hey! Do you need any help?” Gloria pointed to the mess of scrap metal that will soon be the new GizmoDuck suit.</p><p>Gyro shrugged. “No. But if you need something to do you can hand me the tools I need.” He pointed to a toolbox a few feet away. “How is the McDuck family? Are they in danger?”</p><p>Gloria sat down next to him and put his toolbox in her lap. “No they’re all fine. Boyd’s talking to Huey right now.”</p><p>“Oh yeah. It’s been a while. I forgot how close those two were with everything going on.”</p><p>Gloria handed Gyro another tool. “Speaking of Boyd… I didn’t realize that we were trying to kill kids now.”</p><p>Being too caught up in his work, Gyro didn’t pick up on what she said. “Mhm.” Was his response. </p><p>Gloria mimicked him “Mhm. Yep. Sure is fun killing kids.” She knew that he wasn’t even listening.</p><p>“Uh-huh.” He nodded, adjusting his glasses. </p><p>Gloria decided to fuck with him again because why not? “... Hey, I’m pregnant again.”</p><p>“Interesting.” </p><p>“Yep sure is. And Mark’s the father this time!”</p><p>“That’s cool.” </p><p>Gloria sighed and lightly wacked him in the arm with one of his tools. “Gyro!”</p><p>He made a face and looked at his arm before looking back at her. “Hey. What was that for?” </p><p>“Boyd just told me that Huey stopped you from killing him?” Gloria continued. “I’m not here to fight with you, I just want you to explain it.”</p><p>Gyro sighed. “Oh…” He wanted to ask how that came up in conversation but now wasn’t the time. “I was convinced his core was evil. He was built as a weapon to destroy the city, but Huey was the one to show me that there was, well, a core beneath his core to put it at your IQ level.” He paused before adding. “I didn’t mean it like that.”</p><p>Gloria whacked him again. “Oh. Okay so this was a long time ago? You’re not thinking about killing him now or anything.”</p><p>“It was a while back.” He assured. “I promise. I care for the kid. Nothing is going to happen to him. He’s just a normal boy. That happens to have chosen an absolutely terrible father...” Gloria picked up on the slight bitterness in his tone. “But that’s his choice. He can think for himself.” </p><p>“...You wanted him to choose you, right?” Gloria lowered her voice.</p><p>Gyro didn’t respond to that. </p><p>“Shit… I’m sorry, Gyro… I wish there was something I could do.”</p><p>“It’s...fine.” He muttered. “I told you one of the reasons I didn’t say anything is because I didn’t want to cause more drama when all of this was going on. And as much as I absolutely despise Ellie, she needs a kid. I think she’s unstable without one between you and me.”  </p><p>Gloria nodded in response. She really didn’t want to sit and start talking shit about her friend like that. “Well… Boyd is here now so that’s good at the very least. I’m sure if you miss him Ellie wouldn’t mind you visiting him. I know it’s not ideal for you but… if Boyd is happy…”</p><p>“They’re terrible parents.” He spat under his breath. “I would’ve taken him away a long time ago if I wasn’t so afraid of Ellie.” </p><p>“Mark is a terrible parent, yes… But I don’t think Ellie is. Give her a chance to prove herself. I’m sure she is able to take care of Boyd just fine and if she isn’t then you have every right to swoop in and take Boyd back. But it’s like you said, she needs this. I know this is a tricky situation but I’ll support you with whatever choice you make, alright?”</p><p>He closed his eyes and stopped working on the GizmoDuck suit for a second. “Thanks. I guess it’s good for Boyd to be around another robot… but still. He loves her a lot for whatever reason.” </p><p>“And he loves you too. Just because he wants Ellie to be his mom doesn’t mean that he never wants to see you again. I think you’re doing the right thing in letting Boyd decide for himself.” Gloria rubbed his back for comfort.</p><p>“Yeah. It just sort of sucks. Plus I have to tell Ellie about all this…” He cringed. “I don’t know if she’s going to beat me up or Mark.” </p><p>“I’ll convince her to only beat up Mark, then we can all gang up on him!” Gloria laughed to help lighten the mood.</p><p>Gyro decided to change the subject. “About Mark… I’m pretty sure he got kidnapped too.” </p><p>“Oh yeah no doubt. But we can’t tell Boyd that so I’m not sure what to do.”</p><p>“Me neither.”</p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>Ellie entered Steelbeak’s office after her visit to Miss Glamour’s. She approached his desk empty handed. Real Ellie was very relieved Boyd wasn’t there but man was she screwed now. As long as Boyd was safe the pain she was about to go through would be worth it. </p><p>It took Steelbeak a few moments to notice her standing there since she had entered so quietly. </p><p>He shot her a nasty glare. “Where’s the kid? I thought I told you to bring him here to me as soon as you returned.”</p><p>She literally couldn’t explain herself, even if she wanted to. Her expression remained blank. </p><p>Steelbeak stood up and stepped closer. “Use your words, damnit!”</p><p>“... oh right.” He took out his remote yet again and fumbled with a few of the buttons to see if anything would work to get her to reply back. Eventually he figured it out after accidentally electrocuting her a few times but whatever. </p><p>“I am sorry, Mr. Steelbeak, but they weren’t present. I believe they figured out they were in danger and left.” </p><p>“So… you didn’t retrieve the child. Is that what you’re telling me?!”</p><p>“That is correct.” Internal Ellie was shitting herself while fake Ellie remained neutral.</p><p>He pressed the same button that triggered her speech. He didn’t want to hear anymore. He punched the wall in anger. Why it was so hard to get all 5 of these characters together was a mystery to him. “You are to interrogate Beaks, torture him to the point of death if you have to. He will tell us where they are- no. you know what?! Come with me! I’ll do it myself! I’m going to vent out my anger on that little twerp instead!”</p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>“‘Cause you are the dancing queeeeennnn, young and sweeeeeet, only seventeeeeeeeeen!” That was one of Mark’s favorite songs because it helped gain him 1 million followers overnight one time just because he sang it on a live stream.</p><p>The cell door slammed open and in walked Steelbeak with Ellie behind him. </p><p>“Yoooooo, if it ain’t Steelfuck and Fake Ellie!” He did his signature “pew pew pew” at them. </p><p>Ellie locked the cell door behind them while Steelbeak hoisted Mark up by his shirt collar. “Tell us where they are, Beaks!”</p><p>“Uhhhh, who’s “they”? I have a lot of fans.” </p><p>Ellie stood guard of the cell door, blocking it with her body just in case Mark got any ideas of trying to escape.</p><p>Steelbeak slammed his body into the wall. “Quit fucking around! I know you know where they are and you’re going to tell me!”</p><p>“OWWWWWW! That’s going to leave a bump!” Mark cringed. “They’re at the same place Fake Ellie got me. I thought you already knew that, dip shit.” </p><p>“WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME?!” He threw Mark’s body to the other side of the cell as if he was a rag doll. “THEY ARE NOT AT MISS GLAMOUR’S HOUSE ANYMORE! THEY LEFT! TELL US WHERE THEY ARE!”</p><p>For once, Mark actually shut up for a second. The blow knocked the wind out of him. “You’re… telling me… they ditched me?!” </p><p>Steelbeak lifted Mark up by his collar again, ready to yeet him across the room. “Answer the question!”</p><p>Mark raised his arms in the air like he was caught red handed. “I dunno where they are dude! The last time I saw them was in my mom’s private bowling alley before I left because my son was being a dick!” </p><p>That wasn’t the answer Steelbeak wanted. He threw Mark into the wall again before raising his clenched fist high in the air above him, ready to beat the answer out of him.</p><p>“OWWW! NO! NOT THE FACE!” Mark used his pencil arms to brace for the punch.</p><p>Steelbeak was able to get a good shot of Mark’s face despite him blocking. The little punk even let out a pained scream rather than a stupid remark. He held Mark’s now bleeding face close to his own. “Tell me where they are,” He pulled the remote out from his pocket. “Or I’m putting that collar of yours to work.” </p><p>“Didn’t you hear me?! I’m telling ya I have no clue where they are if they aren’t at my mommy’s house! Please stop punching my face! You can punch me anywhere else but the face!”</p><p>Steelbeak dropped him. “Oh, you won’t have to worry about your face anymore.” He pressed the button on the remote. The same one he had used to torture Ellie for hours. </p><p>Mark immediately began screaming from the pain. He tried pulling the collar off of him but it wouldn’t budge.</p><p>“TELL ME WHERE THEY ARE!” Steelbeak laid his foot over Mark’s chest, keeping him in place so it was harder for him to fight the pain. </p><p>Mark was in too much anguish to speak up. All he could do was scream and wail. He tried to kick at Steelbeak but his kicks got weaker and weaker every time he tried.</p><p>“Still trying to fight, huh?” Steelbeak pressed his foot down harder, crushing in Mark’s chest little by little. “You better hope you can work up enough energy to speak because I’m not turning it off.” </p><p>Mark didn’t have a view of Ellie but he knew she was still standing behind him. “REAL ELLIE OR FAKE ELLIE! HELP ME!” Mark screamed out. With Steelbeak crushing his chest on top of the pain rushing all over his body, that was his one and only shot in trying to speak.</p><p>“HA! You think that’s going to work? It’s too late for-”</p><p>Ellie decked that himbo bitch in the face, causing him to stumble off of her boyfriend. She grabbed the remote when he was still in shock and turned it off for Mark. “Don’t you dare hurt him, Steelfuck!” </p><p>Mark gasped. He wasn’t expecting that to work plus he was trying to get his breath back. “Ellie! Are you back?!” Mark sat up and tried to yank his collar off.</p><p>Ellie may have broken through her new programming but she didn’t respond, she was too busy thinking of what to do next. There was a tracker literally inside her and in Mark’s collar so making a run for it wasn’t an option. Steelbeak never carried the remote that unlocked collars or turned the trackers off because why the hell would he do that to begin with? Basically she knew they were fucked.</p><p>Steelbeak quickly regained his footing again and spun around to process what just happened. </p><p>Ellie did the next best thing she could think of and smashed the remote on the ground, crushing it under her foot. If he was going to torture them, he was going to have to figure out another way to do it or get another remote. It was fair game now. “I told you.” She said through gritted teeth. “I told you I would break through my reprogramming over and over again and look at what I did? You made the wrong move bringing me in here with you.” </p><p>Steelbeak screamed in response. He grabbed Ellie by her wrist and slammed her into Mark who was still on the floor. “You made the wrong move, Ellie. I was going to save the torture of killing all of you together, but now? You two won’t live to see tomorrow.”</p><p>Mark frowned. “Aw man. This sucks.”</p><p> </p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0032"><h2>32. Mark Has Issues</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Goodness, I keep forgetting what day of the week it is.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Steelbeak paced back and forth in his office, smoking on his second cigar in the past 20 minutes. He had to think of the most slow and torturous death for both Mark and Ellie. It had to be something unique, excruitiang, and most importantly, entertaining. </p><p>Surprisingly, thinking of a good idea was a bit more difficult than he thought. He had a few ideas and they were all equally perfect, yet he still had no idea if he would choose any of those methods. A part of him still wanted to come up with more ideas. </p><p>So far his ideas consisted of…<br/>-Use the new remote to electrocute them for days on end until death.<br/>-Move them to a more secluded prison cell together and let Ellie watch Mark starve to death. <br/>-Put them in sound proof and colorless rooms separately until they went insane from sensory deprivation until they begged for death.<br/>-Build a cold cell for them to freeze to death; or in Ellie’s case, to the point she couldn’t move. <br/>-Rip them limb from limb...</p><p>The list went on and on and they were all equally painful… but none of them seemed good enough.  He probably would just have to end up settling on something lame. Steelbeak supposed it didn’t matter all that much as long as they were suffering. </p><p>Suddenly someone knocked. A God Bot entered without asking permission. Steelbeak knew why.</p><p>“Lord Steelbeak, I’ve come with the weekly inmate count.” </p><p>Steelbeak turned to him and scowled. “I assume all are accounted for?”</p><p>“Actually, sir, four inmates are missing…”</p><p>He exhaled his cigar smoke before leaning against his desk. “What did you just say?”</p><p>“Inmates 483, 525, 721, and 699 are absent. We assumed they have escaped.” </p><p>Steelbeak angrily slammed his cigar into the ashtray, storming over to his computer to look up who exactly these inmates were. Whoever the hell they were… they had a big storm coming. </p><p>He typed in the numbers aggressively, waiting for his computer to load as the God Bot stood by, anxiously. The pictures of the inmates popped up and Steelbeak’s face blanked before quickly turning to a death stare. He glowered at the screen. Those four inmates were Scrooge McDuck, Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera, Gloria whateverthefuckherlasttnamewas, and Flintheart Glomgold (who’s number was obviously 699). </p><p>The God Bot stepped forward. “Lord Steelbeak, is everything alright?”</p><p>“...”</p><p> </p><p>“Sir?” </p><p>Without a warning, Steelbeak let out a deathly scream, chucking the computer and it’s keyboard across the room. It slammed into the large window, cracking it. His chest pumped up and down violently. “I know they didn’t fucking escape.” He lied to himself through gritted teeth. “I know they fucking didn’t.” </p><p>The God Bot didn’t realize that Steelbeak was aware that was the truth and was just ranting. “Actually... it is indeed true, Lord.” </p><p>“SHUT THE FUCK UP!” He took out his new remote, pressing it. The God Bot fell to the ground in pain, screaming as it clawed at it’s own metal skin, starting to dent itself. “YOU ARE USELESS! YOU HAD ONE JOB!” The ironic part was this particular God Bot’s job was to serve lunch oil for the other bots as well as give weekly reports but whatever. “YOU WILL GATHER OTHERS AND TRACK THEM DOWN! YOU HEAR ME?! YOU WILL NOT REST UNTIL THEY ARE FOUND!” </p><p>Steelbeak paused as the God Bot continued to struggle on the ground. “Except Scrooge McDuck. I don’t really give a fuck about him.”</p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>Gyro had finally finished the repairs Boyd had needed for the longest time. “There. Does that feel better?” </p><p>Boyd nodded happily. “Yes! Thank you so much, Dr. Gearloose! The pain is finally gone…” He gave Gyro a weak smile before hugging him.</p><p>Although Gyro had hugged the kid before, it was still strange for him. He patted him on the back awkwardly. “No problem.” He said. </p><p>Boyd let go and looked up at him. “What do we do now?”</p><p>“Well…” He looked over at Fenton. “I finished the GizmoDuck suit so the best course of action is for you to go out and immobilize God Bots with your shock system and Fenton will fly them back to me for reprogramming.”</p><p>“...but I don’t want to hurt anyone, Dr. Gearloose. You know I don’t like to use that ability…” </p><p>Placing a hand on Boyd’s shoulder, Gyro knelt down to his level. “I know, I’m sorry. But you need to do it for your mom… and dad I guess.” That last part was muttered under his breath. “You’re not hurting them… you’re just forcefully making them immobilized against their will. That doesn’t sound as bad, now does it?”</p><p>“That actually sounds pretty-”</p><p>“Don’t answer that.” Gyro put a hand up. “Fenton will be there to help you out and you won’t ever have to do anything like this again. Do you think you can handle it?”</p><p>“I...I guess.”</p><p>“It’s for your family, Boyd. I know you have it in you.” </p><p>Boyd finally put on his brave face and gave a determined nod. “Okay. I’ll go tell Mr. Crackshell-Cabrera his suit is ready.” Before Boyd could walk over to where Fenton was, none other than Glomgold cockroach crawled over to the kid, stopping him in his tracks. Gloria was right behind, keeping a close eye on the crazy ass old man.</p><p>“OY! HEY, YOO!” Glomgold poked at Boyd’s chest so hard he stumbled backward. “YES, YOO!” <br/>(Glomgold says YOO instead of YOU, if you haven’t noticed by now, because he learned how to spell from a Yoo-Hoo’s chocolate milk can)</p><p>Boyd wasn’t quite sure what to say. “Y-yes sir?” </p><p>“I HAS QUESTION I NEED ANSWERED! WHEN THE FUCK DID ROBO-BABEH HAVE A KID?!” </p><p>Gloria grabbed Glomgold’s elbow to try to yank him away from Boyd. “Man, leave him alone! You’re so annoying!”</p><p>Glomgold jerked his arm away from her. “HEY! HANDS OFF THE MERCHANDISE, GLADIS! I’M TALKING TO MEH GRANDSON!”</p><p>“He wouldn’t be your grandso-”</p><p>“SHUT UP!”</p><p>“U-um…” Boyd was a little put off by a man spitting in his face. “I was adopted back at your… deadly camp…” </p><p>“Oh… I see…”</p><p>“And you executed my old family…” </p><p>“Oh… I did? Hmm….” He awkwardly stood there, scratching his beard.</p><p>Boyd realized that he may have just upset this cockroach dude. “Oh, it’s okay! I’m really happy with my new family, I promise!” He assured. Even if it wasn’t okay Glomgold killed a bunch of people… at least he wasn’t Steelbeak, right? Glomgold never did anything too personal to Boyd… except second-handedly sending him to Camp GodGold.</p><p>“...wait… how can Robo-Babeh have a robo-babeh?” Keep in mind that Glomgold didn’t know about the birds and the bees to begin with so there was that too but whatever.</p><p>Gyro finally decided to chime in. “I built him a long time ago, Glomgold. Now can you leave the kid alone? You’re stressing him out.” </p><p>“NO I’M NOT! I’M JUST HAVING A CONVERSATION WITH MAH GRAND-BABEH!” He stomped his foot before letting out a small gasp. “WAIT! YOU’RE THE DADDEH!?”</p><p>Glomgold waddled himself over to Gyro and hugged him. Given the drastic height difference, he was only able to hug his legs. “THAT MEANS YOU MUST BE MAH NEW BROTHER!” This man didn’t know how family worked and it really showed.</p><p> </p><p>“Oh no no no.” Gyro waved his hands before prying Glomgold off of him. “I am not the father, just the inventor who happens to be the more mature adult.” </p><p>“So… we’re not related?”</p><p>“Sadly, no.” Gyro stated sarcastically. But he was still high key sad Boyd hadn’t chosen him as the dad. That was an issue for another time. </p><p>“FINE! I GUESS I’LL STAY RELATED TO THAT DUMB FUCK, BEAKS!” How he put together that he was related to Mark was a mystery as well. He cockroach crawled to the other side of the lab to continue ruining important paperwork and just making a mess in general. </p><p>Gyro sighed, pinching in between his eyes. “Gloria… can you please keep an eye on that… thing.” He pointed to Glomgold. “I need to send Fenton and Boyd off and I don’t have time to deal with it.” Glomgold was an “it” to him now. </p><p>“Please don’t make me…” As funny as Glomgold was, everyone who ever came in contact with that man loses some sliver of sanity.</p><p>“I know, I’m sorry.” He patted her shoulder before walking away to speak with Fenton who was currently chatting with Buddy (yes that God Bot was still there), Boyd following behind. </p><p>Gloria sighed and walked over to Glomgold who was currently making a snow angel on the floor with all of Gyro’s paper documents. “Having fun down there?”</p><p>“HELL YEE!” Glomgold cheered. He suddenly reached into the inside of his kilt and pulled something out to hand to Gloria. “LOOK WHAT I FOUND WHILE I WAS LOOKING FOR PAPER TO EAT! YOU KNOW, SO I CAN ABSORB KNOWLEDGE!” </p><p>Gloria cringed. She really didn’t want to touch anything that was that close to Glomgold’s ass but whatever. She pinched the paper, taking it away from Glomgold. It was a very very old photo of Gyro with hideously small round glasses, a shirt with puffy shoulders, and a very very scruffy hair cut that went everywhere. He had the biggest, dorkiest smile. Gloria gasped. “WHERE DID YOU FIND THIS?!” </p><p>“IN THE LAB!” Glomgold yelled back. To be fair he forgot where in the lab he found it so stating the obvious was his only option. </p><p>Gloria started laughing. “No fucking way!” She placed the photo flat on the table and took a photo of it and proceeded to send it to the Anti-Gyro Groupchat. Nevermind the fact that some of the people in the chat were currently imprisoned. It was the thought that counted.</p><p>Gyro walked over after waving Fenton and Boyd off. Buddy also left to be extra help. Did he just send a kid into a battlefield? Yes. But he wasn’t worried for him, Boyd could handle himself when he was determined enough. Which it seemed like he was. Gyro folded his arms as he looked down at Glomgold. “Are you done yet? I know you are cleaning this up!”<br/>“CLEANING?” Glomgold blinked at Gyro as if he’d never heard that word before. It didn’t take him long to just ignore him again and keep on throwing papers in the air. Gloria was still laughing at the picture this entire time.</p><p>Gyro turned to her. “What’s so funny? We’re in the middle of a literal crisis!” He was in no mood for bullshit, especially when he was preparing to reprogram a shit load of evil robots. </p><p>Gloria tried her best to stop laughing as she flipped the photo of Gyro around to show him. She kept a firm grip on the photo just in case he tried to snatch it away from her. If he did, whatever. She had the photo saved on her phone.</p><p>His eyes widened and he immediately blushed. He stomped one of his clown feet on the ground. “WHERE DID YOU FIND THAT?!” He demanded. </p><p>“Glomgold was sweet enough to find it for me during his raid of your documents!”</p><p>“Don’t you dare keep that! That was a very dark time in my life!” </p><p>Gloria laughed again and flipped the photo back around. “Awwww no! You looked so cute!”</p><p>“I absolutely did not! The worst part is that’s when Boyd first met me! That version of me is his core memory and just LOOK at me!” </p><p>“What were you thinking with a fit like that?! And the hair?!”</p><p>“I liked the vintage style at the time!” Gyro screamed. </p><p>Glomgold started eating paper again as they continued to argue. </p><p>Gloria continued to guard the photo away from him. “I dunno… I may frame it when I get home.”</p><p>“Duck Jesus…” He started pacing, holding onto his hat. “Like I said, we are in a crisis. We do not have time for clowning around!” </p><p>“You’re right… especially when all of the clown is localized entirely within this picture!”</p><p>He scowled, but he wasn’t going to fight her on it anymore. He had upset her enough in the past few hours. “Fine. Keep it if you will. But if we end up rescuing Markus, you will not show him that.” Gyro bawled his fists. “That man better be dead. I swear.” </p><p>“Oooooooooohhhhh yeahhhhh umm about that….” Gloria continued “I kind of already sent out a copy of it to the Anti-Gyro Groupchat…. Sooooooo...”</p><p>“WHAT?!”</p><p>“WOT?!” You know who said that. “AN ANTI-GYRO GROUP CHAT?! I WANT TO JOIN!” Glomgold yelled with a mouthful of lead covered paper. </p><p>Gloria pulled out her phone and added Glomgold’s number to the group chat. She already had his number for plot reasons. “Done and done!”</p><p>Gyro fumed. “I AM DONE WITH THIS! YOU TWO HAVE FUN MAKING FUN OF ME! I’M GOING TO START PREPARING TO SAVE THE CITY!” He stormed off. </p><p>Glomgold stared at him, watching his clown feet waddle away. “WOT’S HIS DEAL?!” </p><p>“Eh. Whatever it is, he’ll get over it.”</p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>Mark and Ellie sat together in their short-term, before-death, prison cell. Steelbeak was “generous” enough to leave them together while he left to come up with torture plans that would lead to their eventual death. He claimed to be back shortly. It had been about half an hour already and they both knew he was going to come back at any minute now.</p><p>Ellie laid her head in his lap, enjoying the feeling of being close to him while she could. If it wasn’t for the situation she would have brought up the fact he called her looks a 6 or 7 compared to other girls on Twitter like the little bitch he was. She was absolutely a 10. She would also make a comment about how stupid his Spaghetti O’s request was, but now wasn’t the time since they were going to die and everything. Instead she told him the story of what had happened to her during her lovely stay with Steelbeak up until that point.</p><p>“...as soon as I said I loved you, he- he hit me. He tortured me for hours on end after that. My body just went limp. I… I just couldn’t take it anymore. I was so desperate to impress him and for him to love me that I ratted you all out. I was so brainwashed… he reprogrammed my emotions as a sort of torture method. He made me hate you...” Ellie whispered. “I’m so sorry, Mark. I would go through it all again if it meant you wouldn’t end up here with me. I really screwed us over.” She paused, biting her lip for a second. “This is terrible to say… but maybe I shouldn’t have stepped in to save you. If I didn’t we would not be on death row right now, right? If I just continued to pretend to be reprogrammed I could’ve figured out a way to get you out of here but I did not think anything through.” </p><p>Steelbeak did say he was going to beat Mark to death if he didn’t give him the answer he wanted, but Ellie knew he was bluffing. She knew him too well. He wouldn’t kill Mark until he got his sick hands on Boyd so the kid could watch his own father be murdered right in front of him like the sick fuck Steelbeak was. Since he couldn’t find Boyd it would’ve given her some time to get Mark out of there as long as he could have withstood pain for a little longer. She would have been killed in his stead but she didn’t care. There wasn’t a chance for her to escape whether Mark was or wasn’t there. </p><p>“... Is there no way out of here? You’ve seen this place more than I have. Do you think he would have a fighting chance if we somehow got out of here?” Mark started to ramble “Damn… I wish I had my phone so I could just hack my way out of here while listening to my sick mixtape!”</p><p>Ellie sighed, but not because of the mixtape comment. “We’ve escaped prison plenty of times, but this is different. When you have the collar on you and a tracker installed in me it is impossible.” </p><p>“Yeah that’s what I’m saying. I wish my phone and other techno stuff was here so I could somehow cheat my way out of here like I always do! This truly sucks…”</p><p>“Do you… do you think Boyd will manage without us?” </p><p>“I-” Mark sighed. “I’m not sure…”</p><p>“Why not? You programmed him. You should be able to know, right?” Ellie sounded really desperate for an answer. </p><p>Mark finally decided to come clean. “Well.. Actually, Ellie, I’m… not the person who created Boyd. I found him. In a dump. And I just added a few extra things to his system like a stereo and all that jazz to make him cooler but… yeah I didn’t build him.”</p><p>Ellie sat up so she could look at him. “...Then who did? Do you know?” Surprisingly she didn’t sound very mad. </p><p>“Ugh. You’re not gonna like this answer but… It’s Gyro of all people. I know, gross right?”</p><p>“...” She turned away to lean against the wall and stare forward. “...oh.” Her next comment wasn’t something Mark expected for her to say. Or to react. “Maybe it is best that Boyd has… a different parent. We weren’t very good for him, were we?” </p><p>“Nah, I was a pretty cool dad I think!”</p><p>Ellie ignored that. “We stole his kid, Mark. We’re...terrible.” She paused. “No wonder Gyro hates me so much.”</p><p>“Yeah but we stole from Gyro so was it really that bad?”</p><p>“I hate Gyro as much as you but of course it is bad. I wanted a child so badly that I ignored someone else’s pain, even if he was hiding it.” She admitted. “Gloria would have been a much better mother than me but…” </p><p>“Ha! Doubt that…” Mark was still unaware that Ellie believed that Gloria was dead.</p><p>She looked at him again. “Steelbeak killed her, Mark. He killed her because I was stupid enough to want to leave the mansion and I got us caught. Her blood is on my hands.” </p><p>“Oh shit she’s dead? That sucks for Gyro I guess.”</p><p>“Mark I swear to God! Could you not take this any less seriously?! What is wrong with you?!” She snapped before standing up to walk to the other side of the cell. She lost count of how many times they had drama start between them in a prison setting. “I was tortured and you don’t even seem to care! What were you doing when I was gone? “Hanging out” in a hot tub with a margarita?!” </p><p>“What?! Ellie, of course I cared- care! I still care! And I wasn’t only hanging out in the hot tub! There was a bowling alley, too!”</p><p>“The last thing I want to do is fight with you when we are about to die together.” She looked away from him. “I love you, Mark, but you are impossible. How many times are we going to fight until it stops? Until you change? This is exactly what Steelbeak wants!” </p><p>“He wants us to fight? Weird flex but ‘aight.”</p><p>“Why are we even together? Why am I raising a kid with you?” </p><p>Mark’s eyes widened. “What? Why would you say that?” He’s lucky he’s cute because god damn does this man not have a brain when it comes to girls.</p><p>“Isn’t it obvious? We fight all the time, we have absolutely nothing in common, you ignore my feelings, you-” She put her hands up. “I am just going to stop there. This relationship is toxic, Mark. Us dating is what got Steelbeak to hate me to begin with. Our relationship is what got me tortured and brainwashed and- and now it’s what’s getting us killed! I wanted some heart warming moment between us before we die but I can’t even have that! I wasn’t built to be this emotional but you bring out the worst in me and being tortured so many times surely didn’t help!” </p><p>Mark sighed “I know, I know and I’m really sorry! It’s easier for me to like, express emotions and stuff through my phone! I really am trying my best here but it’s hard for me to… god this is gonna sound sad but to like talk to people and actually like talking to people? I dunno how to explain it but you’re right! I’ve been a pretty shit boyfriend. I’ve seen the boyfriend goals tag on Instagram and I am not goal material.”</p><p>“If you don’t like talking to people then why the hell are you dating me to begin with? You know, back in Agartha, when we had our first of many fights we both said we didn’t even know why we liked each other. Do you even know why you like me now? Or are you just desperate for some sort of attention you didn’t get as a child?! I’ve seen how your mother treats you so it would make perfect sense! You just want someone to care and be there for you without even having to try back. Like a mother. You're so desperate you turned to a piece of technology! If we end up escaping from here, which we won’t, I am done. You can go find one of your many “hot babe” twitter fangirls and fuck them instead!” </p><p>Mark sat in silence for a while. He had never thought about how he was treating Ellie like she was his mother but it sounded right. That did sound like him and what he had been doing; it was just never spelled out. “Huh… Guess I never realized how many personal issues I have outside of social media. Ellie, I’m sorry I dragged you into all of this. You clearly deserve better and now… look at where we are. God, I'm such an idiot.”</p><p>“Yes, well, I suppose I am one too.” </p><p>“And about Boyd… I know you may think I was acting like a horrible dad but my dad growing up would always pressure me to do sports and stuff like that! I hated it! And my mom wasn’t any help so I guess I wanted to give Boyd more freedom and breathing room so he wouldn’t be as miserable as I was. I’m sorry that I lied about building him but that doesn’t mean I don’t care about him any less!”</p><p>“Then why didn’t you try harder to protect him? That does not explain anything.”</p><p>“The kid has laser eyes! I assumed he could just fend for himself if he really needed too.”</p><p>“He is a child. You can’t expect a child to just kill people! Laser eyes or not!” </p><p>Mark was about to respond when loud clapping suddenly erupted from the other side of the cell door. They both turned to see none other than Steelbeak himself standing there and smirking like an asshole. </p><p>“Seems like you two have said your goodbyes… Mark, you’re coming with me.”</p><p>“Wait, no!” Ellie stepped forward. “I’ll go first!” </p><p>There were God Bots nearby to guard Steelbeak as he was ready to escort Mark out to another cell. “No, I want Beaks.” He opened the cell door and grabbed Mark by his shirt collar again, throwing him onto the floor through the other side of the cell. The God Bots were quickly able to hold him down if he tried to get up and run away.</p><p>Ellie made a really stupid ass move and grabbed Steelbeak’s hand. “Please. Please don’t do this. Just take me instead and you can do whatever you want. I won’t fight this time. I swear.” </p><p>He swatted her away from him. “You think I’m an idiot?! Like, I’m going to fall for that!” Steelbeak snapped his fingers, signaling the God Bots to carry Mark away. Steelbeak kicked Ellie aside and walked out of the cell and locked it back up again. </p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0033"><h2>33. Something Part 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>(A/N: we couldn’t think of a title so that’s why it’s called “Something Part 1” :) )</p><p>Gyro, Fenton, Glomgold, Gloria, Boyd, and Buddy all sat in a circle on the side of the lab as all the reprogrammed God Bots were chatting like the Chad’s they were. Boyd and GizmoDuck had managed to get a good amount. About 15. It wasn’t the best with how many God Bots there were to begin with but it was better than nothing. 15 was enough to start a riot as a distraction. </p><p>Gyro snapped his fingers to get everyone’s attention, except Glomgold who was still gnawing on paper and staring into space, but he was in the circle anyway. “Okay, here’s the plan. The 15 God Bots we have will start some sort of riot outside the capitol building as a distraction…”</p><p>“Won’t it be obvious it’s a distraction?” Fenton interrupted.</p><p>“Well, you would’ve known that I solved that issue in the next step if you didn’t interrupt me.” </p><p>Fenton muttered a “sorry” under his breath before Gyro continued. “Fenton, you, as GizmoDuck obviously, will join the God Bots in the fight. It might be enough to convince Steelbeak that you’re the main threat since you take the title as “hero”. If not, you can still create a lot of damage so Steelbeak will still be occupied trying to take you down, buying us a bit more time.”</p><p>Fenton did an “aye aye” gesture. </p><p>“The rest of us will sneak in to save our dear friends.” Gyro was still not fond of Ellie and Mark which everyone knew but he had to suck it the fuck up. “Buddy, you’re coming with us as well. We could use a God Bot on our side when we enter the Capitol Building.”</p><p>“Sure thing, doctor dude!” </p><p>“As for you Glomgold…” Gyro put a finger to his chin. “You should just stay here. No one will be able to supervise you but it’s not like you can cause anymore damage.” He gestured to the lab that was very torn apart. “Just try not to choke on anything.”</p><p>“WOT?!”</p><p> </p><p>“I know it’s scary none of us will be around to give abdominal thrusts but-”</p><p>“OH NO! THAT’S NOT THE ISSUE, DR. FUCKTARD! I AM FLINTHEART GLOMGOLD, YOU NEED ME!” </p><p>Everyone just stared at him. </p><p>Gloria, being who she was, definitely wanted to know what else he had to say. “Glomgold’s right. We definitely need his skills! Why don’t you tell Dr. Fucktard what you can do to help us out!” She laughed, nudging Gyro as if to say “get a load of this!” </p><p>“THANK YOU, GLADIS!” Glomgold hopped up and puffed out his chest. “I, FLINTHEART GLOMGOLD, WILL SINGLE HANDEDLY TAKE OUT STEELFUCK AND SAVE MEH ROBO-BABEH! I AM THE ONLY ONE CAPABLE BECAUSE OF MY RIPPED ABS AND STRONG JAWLINE!”</p><p>Gyro rubbed his forehead. “You? Take down Steelbeak?” He did a weird praying motion before throwing his hands out in front of him, taking in a deep breath. Before he could say his snarky comment, he paused. Glomgold actually could be useful. “You’re right, Glomgold. We do need you to fight Steelbeak.” As bait. Glomgold was so fucking annoying he could be another distraction and when Steelbeak was in the middle of stabbing his Scottish ass, one of them could jump in and do the final blow. No one cared about Glomgold’s life, I mean, come on now. </p><p>“HELL YEAH! I TOLD YOU, DR. FUCKFACE!” </p><p>Gloria knew what Gyro’s plan was but shrugged it off. It was going to be entertaining so she wasn’t going to argue. </p><p>Finally Gyro turned to Boyd. “Are you sure you want to come? It’s going to be really dangerous. I know taking down God Bots was hard enough for you.” </p><p>“Yes. I’m sure. I need to save my parents. They need to know I’m doing everything I can to save them!” </p><p> </p><p>“They already know Boyd-”</p><p>“I’m coming!” </p><p>“But-”</p><p> </p><p>Gloria laid a hand on Gyro’s shoulder. “Let the kid come along, dude. He’s got laser eyes and he’s ready to fight. I mean, look.” She gestured to Boyd up and down. “He came back without a single scratch on him. Little guy can handle himself.” </p><p>Gyro nodded. “Okay. I’ll gather the other God Bots to tell them the plan. You guys get ready. We’re leaving in 10.”</p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>Mark Beaks was strapped down to a steel science lab table in the middle of some crusty ass science lab. The two God Bots that had taken him into custody strapped him and then just yeeted. Where Steelbeak was was a mystery. Needless to say, for now Mark was left alone with his thoughts, debating his life choices. </p><p>He was Mark Beaks. The Mark Beaks, and everyone in his life, his allies, friends, and family hated his ass. All he had now was his hot babe Twitter followers and he didn’t even have a phone! He was back to square one, before this storm of events even took place. He was alone. </p><p>Being back to square one wouldn’t have bothered him if it wasn’t for the fact that he realized how much he cared about having a connection to people in real life rather than on social media; something new and very foreign to him. But, like he had said to Ellie, he was very bad at expressing his emotions and talking to people face to face. It wasn’t until today that he realized that.</p><p>God. He shouldn’t be having emotions! He was Mark fucking Beaks. He wasn’t supposed to care about anything or anyone but himself! Otherwise he would be out of character and that wasn’t #cool!</p><p>But he had to admit to himself that Ellie was right. Every single time he was close to becoming a better person, every time he made up with someone, he would go back to how he used to be and make everyone angry at him again. That’s who he was supposed to be, right?</p><p>She hadn’t said that word per word, but she didn’t need to.</p><p>Now Ellie had many flaws herself, which she was aware of, but Mark knew the situation he was in now was his own damn fault. Not the fact he was kidnapped, that was all her, but the fight between them was his fault.</p><p>Man. He couldn’t keep Gloria as a friend despite multiple “make up” conversations with her. He couldn’t keep Ellie not pissed at him. And now even his son was mad at him. And Gyro… eh, he didn’t give a shit about Gyro. Fuck Gyro.</p><p>He should’ve listened to Ellie and have been more sympathetic after what she had gone through but he was too self absorbed to realize that. As for idiocy, well, that wouldn’t change. That was a lost cause at this point.</p><p>For the first time in years and years of pushing away his emotions, Mark teared up. That’s right, you read it here, folks. Mark teared the hell up because now he was lonely and no one liked him. He was going to die a complete loser without a girlfriend, or even friends. </p><p>Dang. Everything sucked. Also Steelbeak was probably coming back soon and his face was irritating to look at. He was such a himbo looking ass. </p><p>Right as he thought that, Steelfuck walked in the room for the sake of the plot moving forward. Him and his stupid, smug face. He walked over to Mark and looked down at him. “Wow. I never thought I’d see the day Mark Beaks cried.” He laughed. “What happened? You weren’t scared of me before.” Steelbeak knew damn well what the answer was but he just wanted to screw with the dude. </p><p>Mark didn’t respond so Steelbeak continued.</p><p>“Ellie was so adamant that you were a good person and would never intentionally hurt her, but I believe she figured out I was right the whole time.” </p><p>Steelbeak slammed his fist on the table beside Mark’s head when he didn’t respond. “SAY SOMETHING, DAMNIT!” </p><p>“Duck Jesus! #backthefuckup, dude! What do you want me to say?! That I’m a shit person?!” Mark scoffed. “Yeah, fine. Whateverrrrr.” </p><p>“I have to say, “whateverrrr” was a wonderful choice for your last word.” Steelbeak took out his handy dandy remote. Yeah, he was just going to go with the old fashion electrocution thing he’s been doing. It was too hard to write something else. “I’ll make sure your EX girlfriend sees your dead body.”</p><p>“Woah woah woah! Wait… so I’m going to just… die? Just like that? Man… Well, if i’m going to die I might as well tell you my whole life story and open up to at least one person before I go!”</p><p>Steelbeak blinked. “Are you fucking serious? No. Absolutely not. I’m clicking the button and you’re going to be left here in pain for hours, maybe even days on end until your body gives out. Goodbye Mark Beaks.” He was about to press the button when Mark just kept on going anyway. </p><p>“Well I guess I should start with my childhood. My dad was a huge sports-buff and he forced me to do lots of different sports. I always hated sport seasons but the awful thing was that different sports went on at different times of the year so I always had a sport!”</p><p>“Wha-”</p><p>Mark continued. “And my mom was never any help! She didn’t care! All she cared about was what was “it” and what wasn’t and she’s still like that to this day! I was forced to go to school with the craziest outfits on because that's what some weird french model designed that season! All the 4th graders laughed at me but my mom wouldn’t do anything about it! She would never be the one to hug me either… she would hire women to come by the house to hug me instead! She claims that having a child would ruin her style. She also wanted a girl instead of a boy because the year I was born, a girl was the “it” thing! It goes without saying that I wore dresses the first year I was born.”</p><p>Steelbeak looked around the lab. “Are you serious right now? Shouldn’t you be begging for your life and crying like that robot? Or literally everyone else I torture?” </p><p>Mark sighed. “Yeah you’re right Steelbeak. I was just getting to Ellie. Man did I really fuck up with Ellie. I never had a girlfriend before because no one ever gave me the time of day outside social media! I tried online dating but it never worked out. I was always paired up with the weirdos. It’s pretty sad.... But anyways my life was actually better when I built Ellie! She is awesome and a robot and most girls aren’t sooooo. Package deal. Anyways she was the first girl to ever like me for who I was outside of my facade on social media and all my money. Because, in case you didn’t know, I'm the world’s youngest billionaire! Yepppppp! She didn’t care about those things because she never had an instagram nor a concept for currency! It was great!” Mark’s tone shifted “Until I blew it! Now she doesn’t even want to look at me! God, we fought when it was the last time I would see her. When I get out of here I’ll have to talk to a therapist or something about this. I mean, don’t get me wrong Steelbeak, you’re a great listener and all but I think I should see a real professional about this. I need to better myself not only for me, but for Ellie and Boyd as well. OH YEAH I STILL HAVEN’T TALKED ABOUT BOYD YET! WELL-”</p><p>“GOD! SHUT UP!” Steelbeak screamed, but he was lowkey into the tea and needed to speak his mind on it. The dude needed to hear it before he died. “Beaks, you are never going to change. You are a shitty, self absorbed villain who can’t even find his place in the world! The reason you’re fucking everything up is because you’re trying to be, like what? A hero or something? Please. People like us never change.” Yeah. Steelbeak literally just compared himself to Mark but whatever. He was clearly the better villain; Mark was no competition. “Don’t worry about bettering yourself because you and your family are dead.” </p><p>“You’re right, Steelbeak, we are dead… we are not properly showing and expressing our emotions. We are acting like it’s fine on the outside but really we need to open up as a family and tackle our issues together. I need to stop being “dead”, as you put it, and be the father that Boyd needs from me! I was trying my best to raise him the opposite way I was raised, but that is not good enough! Boyd is such a special kid and I have to be the BEST dad I can be for him! Thanks, Steelbeak!”</p><p>“Beaks… from what I heard, he’s not even your kid. Are you serious? How are you so dense?” Why Steelbeak was now engaging in this was unknown.</p><p>“No. I didn’t build him but that doesn’t mean I can’t raise him as my own! It’s like adoption except he looks exactly like me! Because I am not technically his father, he has every right to not view me as such but I’ll be damned if I don’t at least make the effort for both myself and for Ellie.”</p><p>“You expect them to forgive you after everything you did?” Steelbeak pulled up a stool. “I tortured Ellie for days and you didn’t even listen to her! Do you not, like, know anything about women? That wasn’t cool, dude. I stood and watched the whole thing and you are a shit boyfriend.” </p><p>“I know I am! But I am going to better myself for her and Boyd! Just you wait! As soon as I get out of here and chill with my fam again, things will be different. Hell, maybe I’ll even patch things up with my parents! That would be great! I would love for Boyd to have grandparents in his life. But first, I’ll have a serious heart to heart with Ellie and Boyd about my negative behavior.”</p><p>“That’s not going to be enough. You’re going to have to go to family therapy. Like Ellie said, your relationship is pretty toxic. You need professionals or something.” </p><p>“That’s a great idea! I can hire a professional to help work with us! I’ll be sure to talk about it with the two of them soon.”</p><p>“You know, I took a few psychology classes in college…” Steelbeak paused. “Wait…” He stood up, throwing the stool across the room and screamed like a madman. Mark made the decision this man would not be his full time therapist. “YOU AREN’T GETTING OUT OF HERE, BEAKS! I AM GOING TO SLOWLY TORTURE ALL OF YOU TO DEATH! YOUR ISSUES ARE NEVER GOING TO BE SOLVED! ALL YOUR LOVED ONES HATE YOU AND IT WILL STAY THAT WAY UNTIL YOUR DYING BREATH!” He held up the remote. “Any last words before I press this?” </p><p>“Yeah I have a few. Can you first, like, stop screaming please? I thought this was a safe space to talk about your feelings? You’re being very rude right now. Secondly, I guess I could talk about Boyd more! I mean, woah, the kid has rockets for feet! That's pretty cool! Maybe we could fly to the supermarket together sometime instead of me using my hoverboard. I dunno just an idea…”</p><p>“Mark you are about to die. I’m giving you a chance here for whatever reason. So say one fucking sentence that you want to be your last words. STOP with the fucking rant.” </p><p>“Oh! You know what else I could do? I could learn how to cook! I know it sounds super weird because Ellie doesn’t need to eat but Boyd on the other hand can! Oh oh! We can have family dinners and game nights awww that would be so much fun!”</p><p>“STOP-” </p><p>“OHHHHH! Better idea! We can all take a vacation! Not you, I mean all like me, Ellie and Boyd. We could take a cruise together and learn to bond while also relaxing in the pacific islands or something! It would be great!”</p><p>“You think taking robots on a boat surrounded by water and beaches is a good idea?” </p><p>“Well they don’t have to be in the water, jeez! Try to listen better!”</p><p>Steelbeak rubbed his forehead. “I have other people to torture right now. Specifically Ellie. I gave you a chance to say something meaningful and you blew it.” Steelbeak’s face went from annoyed back to menacing. “Goodbye Beaks.” He pressed the button. “I’ll check on you in a few hours.” </p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>Gyro, Gloria. Boyd, Buddy, Fenton, and sadly Glomgold sat behind some overfilled trash cans in the plaza right outside of the capitol building. At the moment, they were watching the 15 reprogrammed God Bots start a riot as a distraction. In a minute or so, Gyro was going to send out Fenton, aka Gizmoduck, so it looked like he was behind the attack and not Gyro’s twink ass. </p><p>“Gloria, Glomgold, did you two grab a weapon before we left?” Gyro asked. He should’ve asked beforehand but there’s a lot of stuff going down so give the guy a break. </p><p>“Oh, I always have a weapon with me!”</p><p>“ME TOO! PEOPLE SAY THAT MY HARD HEAD IS THE BEST WEAPON!” Glomgold knocked the side of his head, thinking that was a good thing. He’s also lowkey part cockroach so no matter how many times he’s squashed, he always gets back up.</p><p>Gyro wasn’t concerned about Glomgold. He knew the guy was going to die during their confrontation with Steelbeak anyway. Whether he was like a cockroach or not, he could only go so far. “Alright, Fenton, go ahead and head out there. Buddy, you lead us into the building through the side.” </p><p>“BLATHERING BLATHERSKITE!” Fenton yeeted into the Gizmoduck suit and yeeted out into the battlefield. “STEELBEAK!” He yelled. “IT IS I, GIZMODUCK, HERE TO DESTROY YOU!”</p><p> </p><p>He went on with some other heroic nonsense, which Gyro thought was a weak point of his, as Buddy led them to a side door for employees. He scanned his card, letting the four in. The place would’ve been more secured if the guards weren’t taking part in the current riot. </p><p>“Buddy, where do they keep the prisoners?” Gyro asked. </p><p>“OH! A lot of places! They work in the sewers, factories, McDonald’s…”</p><p>“No. I mean where would they keep Ellie.”</p><p> </p><p>“And Mark.” Gloria added. Only because of Ellie. She didn’t give a shit about him otherwise. </p><p>“OHHHHH!” Buddy rubbed his metal chin for a second. “Ummmm, well Steelbeak really hates them, right?”</p><p>“That’s what we’ve been telling you for the past few hours!” Gyro snapped.</p><p>“Yeah, sorry. I have a “chad” brain as young kids say.” He knocked the side of his head. “Anyway, their probably in the prison cells or torture chambers. But the bad news is… there’s a higher chance Steelbeak will be present.”</p><p>Gyro sighed. “Hopefully GizmoDuck will distract him. We need to rescue Ellie before we go for the kill. He could use her against us. Like blackmail.” Again, he didn’t include Mark in this scenario.</p><p>Buddy shrugged. “Whatever you say chief. Let’s check the cells first.”</p><p>“WAIT!” Glomgold started sniffing the air and scattering around the room. “OY! I SMELL THEM!” </p><p>Gloria looked at Gyro. “What does that even fucking mean?” </p><p>“IT MEANS I SMELL ME ROBO-BABEH AND MARK FUCKING BEAKS! THEY’RE ME FAMILY SO I KNOW THEIR SCENT!” He scattered around more. “I CAN’T TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THEIR SMELLS SINCE THEY’RE LOVERS! GROSS!” He cockroach crawled across the room, occasionally crawling on the wall as much as long as gravity would allow. </p><p>“Quick! We need to follow him!” Boyd took off after him.</p><p>“BOYD! DON’T! THAT MAN IS CRAZY!” Gyro called out to him, but it was too late. Boyd was already across the room with Glomgold who was bashing the elevator button. “Duck Jesus. I guess we’re following the old fart. Come on.” He took Gloria’s hand so she could keep up with his twink fast pace. Buddy followed behind and the three noticed the elevator doors were already closing. “GODDAMNIT! GLOMGOLD HOLD THE DOOR!” </p><p>“WOT?!” </p><p>“I SAID HOLD THE DOOR, YOU-” The door closed. Gyro let go of Gloria’s hand to bang on the metal exterior. “GREAT! NOW WE’RE SPLIT UP AND BOYD IS WITH THE STUPID ONE!” </p><p>Buddy placed his hands on his hips confidently. “It’s okay! We can take the stairs!” He started walking in the other direction. “Now do you guys think they’re more likely to be in the torture chambers or the prison cells…?”</p><p>“Definitely torture chambers. Steelbeak is a little shit.” Gloria huffed. “Speaking of which, you got one of those buttons on you? The ones that take the collars off.” </p><p>“Sure do!” He chimed as he held the door open for both Gloria and Gyro like the chad himbo he was. “We’re going to have to go to the top floor.” </p><p>“Of course we do…”</p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>Boyd and Glomgold exited the elevator. Glomgold had insisted the basement was where one of the smells was coming from. It was a long corridor with prison cells which sounded about right. </p><p>“Mr. Glomgold-”</p><p>“I TOLD YOU TO CALL ME GRANDPA!” </p><p>“Erm, grandpa…” Boyd was a bit hesitant about calling him that. “I don’t think it was such a good idea to split up. What if we run into Steelbeak by ourselves?” </p><p>Glomgold sniffed the air again. “No… Steelbeak smells like burnt lettuce and failure! I don’t smell him anywhere so we are FINE! LET'S GOOOOOOOOOO!” Glomgold kept crawling up and around the walls like the roach he is. Boyd followed close behind him, but he was walking, you know, like a normal person.</p><p>“Do you smell my mom or my dad?” Boyd wondered if all organics could smell each other or if it was just Glomgold. He got weird vibes from the guy… but he was related to his mom right? So he must’ve been trustworthy. Even if he did kill his adopted family and send him to Camp Godgold. But everyone made mistakes. </p><p>Glomgold, on all fours, halted to sniff the air before shrugging. “I TOLD YOU! I CAN’T TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THEM! TRY TO LISTEN TO YOUR GRANDDADDEH!” He continued on with his crawl. </p><p>“...okay.” Boyd now believed he was in danger with this man. He should’ve stayed with Dr. Gearloose and Aunt Gloria. They seemed a bit more… intelligent. </p><p>Glomgold stopped by a cell door before backing up like a truck, almost knocking Boyd over. He turned 90 degrees to his left before scattering up to a cell door to look in. “ROBO BABEH?! WHERE ARE YOOOOOOOOOO???!” </p><p>“I thought you could smell her?”</p><p>“SHUT UP, CHILD! I KNOW WOT I’M DOIN’!”</p><p>A figure in the cell opposite from the one Glomgold was looking into approached the door, putting her hands on the bars. “Uncle Glomgold??”</p><p>“WOT?!” Glomgold turned around to see who was speaking to him. “Oh… it’s just you, robo-babeh…”</p><p>There was a pause.</p><p>“ROBO-BABEH!!!!!” He hopped on the cell bars and started to shake them like the feral animal he was. It didn’t budge.</p><p>Ellie still hadn’t noticed Boyd was with her Uncle. She smiled, despite the fact he started gnawing on the metal bars. “You came to save me!” </p><p>Glomgold didn’t say anything back. He was too busy trying to eat his way through the metal. He soon got too tired and fell on the floor, leaving a spit trail down the bar.</p><p>Ellie knelt down to be sort of on his level. “This is a very nice gesture of you, Uncle Glomgold, but I do not think there is anything you can do…” She trailed off. “You need to get out of here before Steelbeak gets you too.” </p><p>Glomgold made a weird scottish sound as a reply before looking behind himself. He was still sitting on the floor. “YOO!” He pointed to Boyd. “GET THIS DOOR DOWN NOW!”</p><p>Boyd nodded and walked towards the bars and held his wittle hands out for his mom. “Hi Mom! We came to rescue you!”</p><p>“Boyd!” She gasped, hugging him through the bars immediately. “I missed you so so much. I am sorry I left. I never meant to put you through this.” She paused before looking over at Glomgold. “...WHY DID YOU BRING A CHILD HERE?! ARE YOU INSANE?!” </p><p>“OY!” He jumped up, scattering in a circle to express his cockroach-like anger. “MY ROBO-BABEH’S ROBO-BABEH WANTED TO COME! DON’T YOU RAISE YOUR VOICE AT ME!”</p><p>Boyd jumped in, knowing that answer wasn’t good enough. “I offered to come! Dr. Gearloose was worried for me too but I have laser eyes. See?” He shot the lock on the door until it melted away. The door creaked open. </p><p>Glomgold gasped and was attracted to the light like a moth to a flame. “MOVE!” Glomgold struggled a bit, but he managed to get up and throw the cell door open. “HA! I DID IT! I OPENED THE DOOR!”</p><p>Ellie completely ignored him and shoved him out of the way to get to Boyd.</p><p>“OY!” Glomgold stumbled back but he was able to catch himself from falling on the ground. Again.</p><p>Ellie dropped to her knees to embrace Boyd while Glomgold was still fuming in the background. “Thank you. Boyd.” She whispered, already tearing up (without tears?) like the robo mom she was. “You are my hero. I love you so much.” She gave him a motherly kiss on the cheek. </p><p>Boyd hugged her back, tearing up as well. “I missed you, mom! I was so scared…” </p><p>“WOT?! WHERE'S MY MOTHERLY KISS!?” Glomgold waddled over to the two of them and attempted to shove Boyd out of the way. He shoved his face in between the two of them.</p><p>Ellie stayed silent for a moment until she realized he actually wanted a kiss. “...no.” </p><p>“WOT?!” Glomgold yelled right in her face before getting up again and walked around in circles. He was actually jealous of Boyd now for some reason. I dunno why. “UGH! CAN WE JUST LEAVE ALREADY?! I’M TIRED OF BEING HERE!”</p><p>She stood up, taking Boyd by the hand and nodded. But a sudden, and horrifying fact came to mind. “...I cannot go with you. I have a tracker inside of me. If I go with you he’ll find you two as well.” Ellie approached her Uncle before kneeling down to his very small level. “I know you do not like him, but I need you to save Mark and get out of here with Boyd.” Yes, Ellie was still very much pissed at Mark, but she wasn’t going to let him die. </p><p>“Wait mom! I might be able to take the tracker out!” Boyd smiled. “Could I try to take it out for you, please? And if I can’t do it, Dr. Gearloose can! He’s here too!”</p><p>Jeez. Boyd had laser eyes, rocket feet, and a more vast knowledge of robots than Ellie did. “You really think you can do that, Boyd?” </p><p>“Sure!”</p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>Gyro stomped through the halls with his clown feet, still very angry that Glomgold had taken Boyd with him. He was more focused on trying to find the two of them again rather than Mark or Ellie at the moment. Little did he know that they were in the basement and not on the top floor like they were. </p><p>Buddy tapped Gloria’s shoulder. “Yo, babe, you hear that?” </p><p>Gloria paused for a moment to hear. “Yeah… sounds like a little kid crying or something?”</p><p>Buddy shrugged. “Yeah. Steelbeak likes to torture kids a lot. That’s nothing new. But the people you are looking for aren’t kids so we shouldn’t worry about it.” He nudged his head to Gyro up ahead. “Let’s just continue to follow the chicken dude.” </p><p>“WHAT?! No way! If that is actually a kid then we need to save them!” Gloria started walking towards the screaming instead.</p><p>Gyro saw Gloria quickly run past him. “What are you doing?! Being in the lead is very dangerous!” As if Gyro was any protection to begin with. </p><p>“This kid is in more danger than I am in right now! Besides, why are you so quick to want to save Mark? Let’s take our time here.”</p><p>Gyro didn’t know what she was talking about at first until he heard the screaming as well. It was pretty faint but it was there. Sounded like it was at the end of the hall. “Oh god. Steelbeak tortures kids?! What a freak!” He ran alongside Gloria. Buddy jogged slowly in the background; he was too lazy to go any faster. </p><p>Gloria was the first to reach the door to the science lab that worked as torture chamber. When she peaked her head in she realized that it wasn’t a kid at all! It was only Mark, crying and screaming from the collar. Steelbeak was luckily not in the room. “Mark?” Great. They were literally trying to avoid him by doing a side mission.</p><p>He didn’t bother to look at her. In fact, Gloria wasn’t even sure if he heard her to begin with. His body was twitching wildly but held down by the restraints as he continued to scream and wail.  </p><p>All three of them were in the science lab now. Gloria walked over to Mark “Dude, quit being a pussy. We’re here to save you or whatever.”</p><p>“GET IT OFF! GET IT OFFFFFFF!” He gasped in between screams. </p><p>“Ohhhh…” She didn’t realize he had a collar on until just now. Gloria turned around to look at Buddy. “Buddy, do you think you could turn the collar off?”</p><p>“So that’s why he’s screaming like a young girl!” He walked over, pulling out his handy employee button. “I got it!” He pressed the button and the collar turned off, as well as unlocking itself from around Mark’s neck. But he was still strapped to the table.</p><p>Mark started coughing wildly as he continued to sob. “THAT FUCKING SUCKED! I THOUGHT I WAS HAVING A THERAPY SESSION AND THEN THAT HAPPENED!” He looked up Gloria. “Oh you’re not dead? Aight.”</p><p>Gloria ignored that. </p><p>This whole time, Gyro was walking around the science lab to check everything out. If he found something interesting he would stuff it in his pocket.</p><p>Mark looked over at the lot of them. “Are you going to get me out of here or what?!” He started pulling against the steel restraints holding him down again. </p><p>“Buddy, could you?”</p><p>“Yep. Got it.” Buddy walked over to a nearby control station and pressed another button. The metal restraints retracted. </p><p>“So… were you in some weird 50 Shades of Gray situation or…” Gloria trailed off. Mark sat up and started rubbing his wrists.</p><p>“NO! Steelfuck strapped me down so I couldn’t struggle, asshole. I’ve been in pain for, like, hours!” It actually only had been 20 minutes. A long 20 minutes when you’re going through that shit though. “Please tell me you guys found Ellie.” </p><p>“No we haven’t.” Gloria continued “But Glomgold and Boyd are here too and I think they are going to look for her right now.”</p><p>Mark threw his head back and whined. “EWWW! WHY IS GLOMGOLD HERE?! HE SMELLS LIKE OLD CHEESE!” He looked back at Gloria and crossed his arms. “And why the hell did you leave him to look out after Boyd? God. And I thought I was an idiot.” </p><p>Gloria flicked his forehead. “Um rude! It wasn’t my fault! Boyd started running after him but it doesn’t matter. We should probably get out of here before Steelbeak comes back.”</p><p>Standing up to stretch his back, Mark yawned like he had just woken up from a nice nap. “Soooo what’s the plan? We going to murder the guy or something? Pulling another Agartha mission?” </p><p>Gyro, with pockets full of equipment, turned to Mark. “Our main goal is to find Ellie… and you. We worry about Steelbeak afterward.”</p><p>“...You mean to tell me you didn’t think that far ahead? WOWWWWWWWWW!” </p><p>Gyro looked over at Buddy. “Is it too late to put that collar back on him?!”</p><p>“No! I can totally do that!” Buddy walked over to the table to grab the collar. Mark screeched and stood behind Gloria, using her as a shield. </p><p>“NO! DON’T LET THAT FREAK TOUCH ME! TAKE GLORIA!” </p><p>Gloria rolled her eyes. “Buddy don’t put the collar back on him, I guess.” She scoffed. “Alright. We saved you so let’s bounce.</p><p>“FINALLY!” Mark yeeted out of the room, followed by the others. Gloria, being the last to leave, looked behind her at the table again. A plan formed in her head and she grabbed the collar. </p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0034"><h2>34. Something Part 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Steelbeak looked out his office building at the riot going on below. GizmoDuck was continuously yelling for Steelbeak to show himself and fight. Steelbeak may have been a dumb himbo, but he wasn’t stupid. This was some sort of distraction, no doubt. He turned to the God Bot behind him.  “I assume the riot is being handled well?”</p><p>“Yes, sir. We have it under control. There are only about 15 Bots reprogrammed. That’s not enough to take us down.”</p><p>“WELL IT WAS ENOUGH TO DISTRACT FOR 5 FUCKING MINUTES!” </p><p>The God Bot flinched. </p><p>“There is a reason this is happening.” He started pacing around the room, hands behind his back. “Gather other God Bots to search the building. I bet Mark and Ellie’s little friends are here to help. Get them and bring them to me. Understood?”</p><p>“Y-yes sir.” </p><p>The God Bot yeeted the hell out before he got hurt himself. Steelbeak punched the wall in frustration. He knew a confronation was about to happen and he wasn’t fucking happy about it. </p><p>It didn’t matter. They weren’t going to win.</p><p>For now, he just enjoyed the show. GizmoDuck was shot down. </p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>“...You can smell Mark?” Ellie asked while following Glomgold who was still scattering on all fours across the hall. Boyd was skilled enough to be able to remove her tracker. They left it in the cell, hoping it would trick Steelbeak longer enough for them to come up with a plan of escape. Or a plan to kill him? Ellie didn’t really know what was going on. It didn’t seem like Boyd knew either. </p><p>“YES NO SHUT UP MEH NOSE NEEDS TO CONCENTRATE!” Glomgold closed his eyes and sniffed around the area, moving back and forth between Ellie and Boyd. He opens his eyes and points down one hallway. “HE’S THAT WAY! COME ALONG ROBO-CHILDREN!” Glomgold was in the lead, crawling on the floor.</p><p>Glomgold scattered his fat body all the way to the elevator. He got up long enough to push the button to go up. “MARK IS ABOVE US! WE NEED TO GO UP!”</p><p>As the three waited for the elevator, Glomgold had started scattering around them impatiently. Boyd clung onto Ellie being a little freaked out for obvious reasons.</p><p>“Uncle Glomgold?” Ellie asked. “I hope it is not rude of me to ask, but why are you helping all of us? You wanted us dead not very long ago.” </p><p>“NOOOOOO! IF YOU DIED, WHO WOULD DO MY LAUNDRY?!”</p><p>Ellie decided not to question it any further. Maybe he finally viewed them as his family.</p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>“GAWD! Why is the elevator taking so long!” Mark banged his head against the wall. “I don’t have my phone or anything! And, like, God Bots are probs gonna find us again and then I won’t be able to hire a family therapist! OR GET A NEW PHONE!” </p><p>Gyro sighed and turned to Gloria and Buddy. “We need to come up with a plan. How are we going to find Ellie, Boyd and Glomgold? They could be anywhere in this hellhole!”</p><p>“Yeah I know right? Crazy!” Buddy laughed. “I thought for sure he would have both of ‘em,” meaning Mark and Ellie. “Up here. But I guess he didn’t want to torture the other one? I dunno. We should check the prison cells next, but we need to hurry. It took us long enough to find, um…” He looked at Mark who was muttering complaints to himself. “...that guy.” </p><p>“And what are we going to do about Steelbeak? Are we going to kill him?” Gloria added.</p><p>Buddy put his hands up. “Listen, babe, I have no idea. You guys wanted me to help you find your friends and that’s what I’m doing. Whether you’re going to come up with murder plans or not is up to you. But Steelbeak is not one to be reckoned with if you haven’t realized that by now so you can’t just pull an idea from out of your ass. You guys really should’ve thought this more through before coming here.”</p><p>“WELL, WE WERE DESPERATE!” Gyro yelled. “You know Steelbeak better than any of us. What’s his weak points?”</p><p>“Ummmm…” Buddy tapped his sexy metal chin. “He doesn’t like to be called an idiot, but that’s not really a weakness….” Finally he just shrugged. “Dunno man.” </p><p>“...this is just fucking great. I’d say we should just go back into hiding again but that won’t solve anything.” </p><p>Gloria held up the collar she picked up earlier. “Well, I got this! Maybe we could do something with it?”</p><p>“How would we even get it on him?” Gyro had to admit it wasn’t a bad idea, but they would have to find Steelbeak… who was very muscular, even compared to Gyro. Not to mention they would most likely run into more God Bots. Some probably reentered the building already. </p><p>“We do what we always do. We wing it and kick his ass.” </p><p>Gyro leaned against the wall, still waiting for the elevator. They should’ve taken the stairs. “It’s not like we have a choice. We either kill him when we’re here or die. Who’s to say he hasn’t already killed Ellie.” </p><p>“Wow, ummm….” Buddy nudged Gloria. “Your boyfriend is a bit negative.” </p><p>Gloria shook her head. “Don’t give up hope we don’t know that.”</p><p>Mark whined, banging his head again “But she could be anyyyyyyyywhereeeeeeeee!”</p><p>As if on cue, the elevator doors opened and out scattered Glomgold, on all fours, sniffing the ground. He waddled over to Mark before clinging onto him and sniffing his shirt. “Hmmmm…” Glomgold nodded to himself before backing up to look at him. “IT’S YOOOOOOH!” </p><p>“EWWWW!” Mark shoved him away. “Don’t get so close to me! I’ve been through enough today and your germs are only going to make it WORSE!” </p><p>“Do not be rude. We would not have found you if it wasn’t for his help.” Ellie stated matter-of-factly. She stepped out of the elevator alongside Boyd to look at Mark. She was thankful he wasn’t dead, but man was she still peeved at him. </p><p>Mark gasped “ohmygod!” He ran up to hug both Boyd and Ellie. “Iamsosossorry!!! I talked to a therapist guy and I promise to both of you that I'm going to be the best boyfriend and father ever! I promise! We are going to have family game night and I’ll learn how to cook my own spaghetti O’s and I can hire a professional therapist. It'll be great! I’m sorry!” Mark started tearing up again.</p><p>Not quite hugging him back yet, Ellie just stood there, shocked. “Are you...crying?”</p><p>Mark discreetly wiped his eyes. “No…?” Everyone else just kinda stood there and watched this whole dramatic shitshow go down.</p><p>“...Mark.” She sighed. “I am glad you are okay, but I do not think now is a good time to talk about this.” Ellie nudged him away as politely as she could. </p><p>“B-but… what about our therapy?!” Mark turned to Boyd. “You want to go to therapy, don’t ya, sport?!” He held Boyd’s wittle hand desperately. Boyd was too nice to not hold his hand back and Mark knew it. He really needed support right now. </p><p>Boyd started crying when he noticed that Mark was. He hugged his dad. “I missed you! I was so scared you were hurt!” </p><p>Mark hugged him back and started crying harder. “Boyd I am so sorry! I promise I’ll learn how to cook Spaghetti O’s for you!”</p><p>“I don’t know what those are but I would love that!” </p><p>Ellie stared at the two of them for a moment. She had never seen Mark cry before, in fact, she didn’t even think he was capable of doing so. She placed a hand on his shoulder. “Mark, I-” </p><p>Gloria walked from behind Gyro who was tall enough to block Ellie’s view of her when she first got off the elevator. Gloria walked over to Ellie with a big dumbass smile “Hey, bitch!”</p><p>Ellie flinched, turning to Gloria as Mark continued sobbing on the floor, hugging Boyd. It was her turn to sob now. </p><p>Buddy, Gyro, and Gloria had no idea what the fuck was going on.</p><p>Or Glomgold. But when did he know what was going on?</p><p> </p><p>Ellie clung onto Gloria, giving her a tight hug and continued sobbing without saying anything. </p><p>Confused, Gloria patted her back. “Are you alright?” God everyone was so emotional today. Now all we need is for Glomgold to cry over something.</p><p>“Steelbeak said you were dead!” She spat out. “I- I thought it was my fault!” </p><p>“What?! Aw no way, Ellie! It’s gonna take a lot more than that to get rid of me!”</p><p>“UGH! GOD! EVERYONE STOP CRYING!” Glomgold scuttled over to split Gloria and Ellie up, and then proceeded to push Boyd away from Mark. “WOT ARE WE GONNA DO NOW?!!!!” </p><p>Boyd started crying harder because Glomgold had pushed him. </p><p>Both Gyro (yes, Gyro uwu) and Ellie ran over to him. </p><p>“GLOMGOLD! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!” Gyro screamed.</p><p>“WOT’S WRONG WITH ME?! WOT’S WRONG WITH YOOH!? WE NEED TO KILL STEELFUCK OR SOMETHING! I’M HUNGRY AND WANNA LEAVE SOON!” </p><p>“Uhhhh… guys?” Buddy muttered in the background.</p><p>“SHUT UP, ROBO-BITCH! I’M BUSY RANTING!” Glomgold started scuttering around more, like the cockroach he was. “I SAY WE LEAVE DUCKBURG TO ROT AND MOVE TO JAPAN! I HAVE AN ENERGY DRINK COMPANY OVER THERE! MY MUSCLES ARE ON BILLBOARDS FOR MILES! IT’LL BE PERFECT!”</p><p>“...guys?” </p><p>“Please, you living in Japan?! You don’t know the first thing about living there! You probably aren’t even fluent in Japanese like I am!” Gyro spat.</p><p>“YES I AM! HOLA, BITCH!” </p><p>“Guuuuuuuyyssss??!”</p><p>“THAT’S SPANISH!”</p><p>“GUYS!”</p><p>“WOT?!”</p><p>“We’re, like, being taken hostage and stuff.” Buddy shrugged. If he had pockets, he would stuff his hands in them.</p><p>Everyone paused and looked around. Indeed they were. God Bots had surrounded them, guns pointed their way.</p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>Steelbeak tapped his foot impatiently as he waited for the God Bots to bring in the hostages. He had been contacted that they had been found and he was going to speak his mind before he sentenced them to immediate execution, right in front of him. He wasn’t playing games anymore. </p><p>Fenton, aka GizmoDuck, was currently unsuited (not naked, don’t get the wrong idea) and tied up in the corner with a God Bot making sure he didn’t pull anything. Not that Fenton could, considering he was unconscious and bleeding everywhere but you can never be too careful. </p><p>The door flung open and in walked God Bots, escorting the 7 cretins. The room was large, but still very crowded with so many people in at once. The God Bots were smart enough to put sunglasses on Boyd to prevent him from doing any laser tricks. He was too scared to fight at the moment anyway. </p><p>They were all in handcuffs, including Buddy, as Steelbeak paced back and forth. He eyed each and everyone one of them up and down in disgust. “Well well well… I finally have all of you in the same goddamn room.” </p><p>Mark scrunched up his face. “...are we doing a group therapy session or…?</p><p>“SHUT UP!” Steelbeak spat, slapping Mark across the face. Ellie gasped as he fell straight onto his beak, face first.</p><p>“OWWWWWWW!” </p><p>“Out of everyone I have taken down, you all have been the most difficult and the largest pain in the ass by a large margin. And the best part is, none of you are even heros! You’re no Scrooge McDuck, just a bunch of fucking everyday, chaotic neutral assholes.” He laughed to himself. “What’s your goal here? You really think you can save Duckburg? Look around you! I have an entire army. I’ve already hurt each and everyone one of you either emotionally or physically. I am not one to be fucked with and you idiots keep trying anyway! For what? You knew coming here you were going to die! It’s-”</p><p>Gloria interupted him “Hey I know you captured us and all but could you just shut the fuck up already? Like, damn, I’m tired of all the dramatic evil monologues.”</p><p>Steelbeak didn’t respond. He grabbed Gloria by the hair, ripping her from the God Bot, and shoved her head against the window. It cracked from the force and she let out a scream. Some blood was already dripping from the back of her head. </p><p>“Gloria!” Gyro screamed. A God Bot kicked him to the ground to shut him up.</p><p>Steelbeak held Gloria up by the neck. “You think you’re soooooo funny, don’t you? You think some snarky comments are going to save you and your friends? I think you’re struggling with something and your attitude is a way to hide it.” </p><p>Mark sighed in relief “Okay for a moment there I thought this wasn’t going to be a therapy session. Let it out, Gloria! This is a safe space!”</p><p>Steelbeak ignored him and slammed Gloria into the glass again. “Go on. What do you have to say?” He loosened his grip on her neck just a little; not enough to let her go, but enough for her to be able to breathe to let a few words out.</p><p>“You wanna know what I have to say?! I say that you’re a fucking dipshit of a dictator!” God she knew that saying that would literally cost her her life but whatever I guess. It’s what she does best.</p><p>He tightened his grip on her neck again. “Very well…” He smashed the window with his foot, shoving Gloria’s head backward. The broken glass itched the back of her neck, breaking it, as she was pushed further and further out the window. Her back started to push back on the remaining glass that was her only saving grace. “GOT ANYTHING ELSE TO SAY?” </p><p>During this whole fiasco, Boyd has been nudging his head down to shake the sunglasses off of his face. The God Bots didn’t really seem to care as long as he was restrained. Once the sunglasses fell off his face he immediately zapped Steelbeak with his laser eyes, causing him to stumble back and let Gloria go.</p><p>Boyd was zapping everyone’s restraints off with precision before the God Bots had time to even react to what had just happened.</p><p>Once Glomgold was free he immediately pounced on top of Steelbeak “HAJKSDHAKSJHDAKSJHDA”</p><p>Gyro jumped up. “FIGHT!” He jumped a God Bot, breaking open the back of it’s head to pull out the wiring. It shut down and the other Bots started to freak the fuck out before finally deciding to attack. Boyd helped out, holding other God Bots back while Gyro continued to do what he needed to do. </p><p>Mark was ready to punch a God Bot before Steelbeak grabbed Glomgold and yeeted him at Mark. The two both fell down. Mark was the first to get up and decided that it was like a game of hot potato. He picked Glomgold up and threw him right back at Steelbeak. Glomgold started laughing maniacally as he was pulling Steelbeak’s hair out and jabbing his eyes with his stubby fingers.</p><p>“GAH! GET OFF YOU LITTLE FREAK!” </p><p>Gloria used all the distraction to crawl away, blood still dripping from her skull. Man she could’ve died, but at least she got that snarky comment in. Worth it! A shadow loomed over her and she looked up to see none other than one of the lovely Chad-like God Bots. One of the evil ones that is. </p><p>“Where do you think you’re going?” </p><p>Buddy tackled the Bot to the ground. “SCATTER, BABE!” He started punching the God Bot he had just tackled. “RESPECT WOMEN, BRUH!” </p><p>“BRO I DO RESPECT WOMEN, BRO!”</p><p>Gloria did what she was told and scattered. She still had that handy dandy collar so if she could muster up enough strength, she could try to strap it around Steelbeak while he was distracted.</p><p>More evil God Bots entered the room to make everything more chaotic, but the 7 were somehow managing as Fenton continued to be unconscious in the corner. </p><p>“I SAID GET OFF!” Steelbeak finally got a hold of Glomgold and threw him to the ground, punching his face in. </p><p>Glomgold’s face literally caved in but then just popped back to normal because, ya know, this man was like a cockroach as we keep saying. </p><p>“OY! GET OFF ME, STEELFUCK! I AM THE TRUE GOD, NOT YOOH!” Glomgold tried to use the god-like powers he thought he still had to save him but nothing worked. “GODDAMNIT!” Guess the only cool ability he had was his sense of smell and weird luck in avoiding death.</p><p>“YOU ARE NO GOD YOU, COCKROACH FREAK!” Steelbeak picked Glomgold up by the neck, or beard I guess, and threw him across the room. </p><p>Glomgold fell to the ground and watched as God Bots and his newfound allies fought. He shrugged. “I’m taking a nap…” He curled up on the ground and no God Bots bothered him because he basically looked dead. </p><p>Gyro was still struggling to power down all the God Bots. They were struggling more and his skinny body could only do so much against them. He would basically hop on each God Bots’ back while they weren't looking and tried to yank on any and all wires.</p><p>As for what Ellie was doing, well, she was actually cowering in the corner for once and not killing people left and right. After everything she had been through, as soon as the fight broke out she just went braindead. Being in the same room as Steelbeak didn’t help either. The room was so crowded and chaotic she couldn’t even see any of her friends, except Glomgold who was sleeping on the ground. </p><p>She closed her eyes and crouched down, shielding her head. Ellie just wanted everything to stop. </p><p>Steelbeak laid eyes on Ellie and immediately charged at her. He slammed her against a wall with one hand and took out a knife that he just remembered he had for plot reasons. Could’ve been useful sooner but his brain finally caught up with him. He held it high up above him as if he was the villian in an 80’s slasher film, ready to stab the knife right through her sensitive metal skull and break all her important circuits, even the flashdrive. Mark saw this and sprang in front of Ellie, shielding her from the blow. It all happened in a matter of seconds. Steelbeak stood back to see the damage only to realize that Mark was stabbed in the chest. He laid unconsciously on his side, on top of Ellie.</p><p>“Mark!” Ellie screamed. His blood was pooling all over her clothes and onto the floor. “Why…” She hugged him leaning her forehead against his. “Why would you do that, you idiot?” </p><p>Steelbeak smirked to himself and watched. This was what he’s been waiting for this whole time! To watch Ellie and Mark suffer! While he was busy literally just standing there, Gloria managed to jump up on his back and strap the collar around his neck, locking it.</p><p>“WHAT THE-” Steelbeak grabbed at the collar trying to take it off. </p><p>“Buddy! Hit the button!” Gloria dropped onto the floor again. Buddy nodded and turned the collar on with his remote.</p><p>“GAH!” He fell to the floor, wrapping his hands around his neck. “YOU IMBECILE! YOU CAN’T DEFY ME LIKE THIS! YOU-” Another wave of intense pain shot through him and his words were cut off as he let out another scream. </p><p>Steelbeak continued to struggle on the floor as the rest of the God Bots were taken down. The group, except Glomgold who was fast asleep, gathered around to watch their mortal enemy suffer. They all stood there, watching him writhe in pain. </p><p>“YOU’RE GOING TO PAY FOR THIS!” Steelbeak screamed at everyone. “I WILL- I WILL SHOW YOU NO MERCY! I WILL SKIN YOU ALIVE AND RIP YOU LIMB FROM LIMB!” He gagged, before pounding his fist on the ground from the pain that seemed to be getting worse. “IF YOU TAKE DOWN ME, F.O.W.L WILL GET YOU BACK! YOU CAN’T ESCAPE RECKONING! YOU WILL DIE WHETHER IT IS BY THE HANDS OF ME OR NOT!” He spat. “YOUR LUCK WILL ONLY LAST SO LONG!” </p><p>Ellie let go of Mark and her expression morphed into one of pure hatred. She ripped the knife out of Mark’s chest and shoved his body off of her. Covered in blood, she walked over and glared down at Steelbeak. “Gyro…” She spat out through gritted teeth. </p><p>Gyro turned to look at her. “What?”</p><p>“Take Boyd out of the room, I do not want him watching this.” </p><p>Ellie had crazy eyes, a blood soaked outfit and a bloody knife in her hand. Gyro didn’t need an explanation. He quickly scooped Boyd up in his arms and left the room without another word.</p><p>She placed a foot on Steelbeak’s chest to hold him down as he continued to fight the pain. “Do you have any last words, Steelfuck?”</p><p>“Ellie, please…” He whimpered out. “I- I love you.”</p><p>“I know. Remember at Red Lobster when I said “I do not like you” rather bluntly? Yes? Well, I still am not very fond of you.” She scoffed, taking her foot off of him before swinging down the knife, sinking it deep into his chest. Steelbeak let out an ungodly scream before she brought it down again, and again, and again. And again. </p><p>Buddy turned to Gloria. “Yo, like, what the fuck?” </p><p>Everyone watched Ellie turn into Jack the Ripper over there. They couldn’t look away; it was too horrifying but awesome. </p><p>Blood was splattering everywhere but mostly on Ellie’s face. She was now covered in other people’s blood from head to toe. She didn’t care; she kept stabbing and stabbing even when Steelbeak went limp. Blood started dripping from his mouth before she finally sunk the knife into his neck as an extra precaution. </p><p>She stood up and dropped the knife. Her smile was sickening.</p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>“AND THAT’S THE WHOLE STORY!” Glomgold chimed, pumping his fists in the air. “I believe the moral is “The true Agartha was in our hearts all along”.”</p><p>The therapist adjusted her glasses, looking up at the 5 of them in her office. Gloria, Gyro, Ellie, Boyd, and Glomgold sat on two sofas, waiting for her response. </p><p>The story had taken Glomgold two and a half hours to tell. He started with Agartha and continued on to the murder of Steelbeak in one go.</p><p>The therapist cleared her throat. “And how long ago did this happen?” </p><p>“3 months…” Gyro muttered.</p><p>“Yeah, you know. When the dictatorship fell.” Gloria pointed out the window. Most of the city was destroyed but the rebuilding process was going well. A statue of Steelbeak and “Godgold” were kept up by city hall since they were now considered an important part of the city’s history. Glomgold didn’t mind that his statue was still up obviously.</p><p>“Well, I just moved here.” The therapist said. “Why are you all just now deciding to see therapy? You should’ve come a lot sooner. I mean…” She gestured to the lot of them. Everyone looked very disturbed,  except Glomgold who was just picking his nose. </p><p>“Gyro insisted we should all go as a group sooner but I was scared. I did not want to talk about it.” Ellie admitted. “I eventually caved in. For Boyd’s sake.” </p><p>“And what happened to Mr. Crackshell-Cabrera and Mr. Beaks?” </p><p>“They are both still in the hospital recovering. Fenton is awake but Mark is still in his coma.” Gyro told her.</p><p>Ellie started sobbing.</p><p>“OY! STOP CRYING! YOU INTERRUPTED ME LIKE FIVE TIMES DURING THE SESSION SO SHUT UP!” Glomgold popped a booger into his mouth. </p><p>Boyd looked up at his mom and held her hand.</p><p>The therapist's alarm went off before she could say anything to Ellie. “Looks like we’re out of time…” She sighed. “I can’t force any of you to come back but… I do strongly encourage it.” </p><p>“Alright, whatever.” Glomgold hopped off the couch. “LET’S GO! I WANT SOME HUSHPUPPIES!”</p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0035"><h2>35. The Beginning</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Aw, man! We haven’t seen Miss Glamour in FOREVER! I missed that bitch!” Gloria felt pretty bad for not saying goodbye or thank you to her for letting them stay in her house.</p><p>Gyro looked down at his normal attire. “Yeah...I didn’t have anything she would consider an “it”.” He looked over at Gloria who was just wearing her usual as well and rolled his eyes. “She’ll probably call your look an “it” anyway.” He muttered under his breath. “...but you look nice!” </p><p>Gloria knocked on the door for the both of them. “Watch. I can make you an “it”! I’ll figure something out.”</p><p>Falcon opened the door and glared down at the both of them. “Oh. It’s you two again.” </p><p>“Always a pleasure, Falfuck!” Gloria saluted before walking past him again. “YO, WHERE’S MY BITCH AT?!”</p><p>“Over here, darling!” A faint voice yelled from the dining area. It was the one and only Miss Glamour. Gloria’s number one bitch.</p><p>Ellie waved as the two entered the room. Her and Boyd had been living with Miss Glamour since Steelbeak’s downfall. Though neither of them were considered an “it”, Miss Glamour was convinced they were her daughter in law and grandson so she had to be nice even if Mark was a little prick. </p><p>Glomgold was also there because his mansion and all belongings had been taken away since his dictatorship. The city demanded the money to help rebuild. He lived on the streets for a bit, living in a dumpster with a family of cockroaches, until Ellie found him and convinced Miss Glamour to take him in as well. </p><p>Buddy was also there because fuck it. Miss Glamour still did not like robots but the dude was huge and intimidating as hell so she let him in for lunch.  </p><p>“OY! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOOH TWO DOIN’ HERE?!”</p><p>“That attitude is not an IT you fat FUCK!” Miss Glamour spat, kicking Glomgold with one of her Gucci heels. “It is so nice to see you again, Gloria! ...not you Gyro.” She looked at him and up and down. “What on EARTH are you wearing?” </p><p>True to her word, Gloria tried to help Gyro be an “it”. “Hey, Miss Glamour! Don’t you see his bouchie pink tie? That’s pretty “it” Right?!”</p><p>“It looks like it’s from Banana Republic. Commoner.” </p><p>“Well…” Gloria looked over Gyro’s outfit. “What about his hat?! Don’t ya think that’s an “it”?”</p><p>Glamour sneered. “No.” </p><p>“Hmmmm…” Gloria took the hat off of Gyro’s head and put it on her head. “How about now?” </p><p>Miss Glamour gasped. “Dear, now that is an IT look!!!! It works so well with your facial features. It really defines you.” </p><p>Gyro grumbled under his breath. “I’m sorry I don’t meet your expectations. I don’t have time to be an “it” when I am creating inventions that will benefit Duckburg and the entire world.”</p><p>Gloria laughed and gave Gyro his hat back before going over to greet Ellie and Boyd. “Hey guys!” She gave Ellie a hug first before hugging Boyd next. Gyro went ahead and sat down in his spot at the table.</p><p>“Hi, Aunt Gloria! I haven’t seen you since 2 hours ago!” Boyd was referring to the therapy session. </p><p>“Thank you for coming.” Ellie added. </p><p>“I will never pass up the opportunity for free food!” Gloria sat next to Gyro.</p><p>Miss Glamour cleared her throat. “Tonight, Mr. Graves is preparing Paella. I hope that is okay with you all. If not, well, I simply do not care.”</p><p>“WOT?! WOT ABOUT ME HUSHPUPPIES?!” </p><p>Ellie kicked him from under the table.</p><p>“OY!” He scowled at Ellie. “DON’T KICK YOUR UNCLE, YOU LITTLE-”</p><p>“Anyway.” Miss Glamour turned her attention back to Gloria and, sadly, Gyro. “Ellie hasn’t spoken about it but you all took down Steelbeak, is that correct?” </p><p>Gloria nodded “Yeah we did. Seems like it was so long ago but it's only been a few months.”</p><p>“I’m just going to get to the point because I don’t know how to bring this around.” Miss Glamour said. “Why did you bitches lie to me?” </p><p>Ellie, Boyd, Gyro and Gloria all looked at eachother with an “oh shit” look on their faces. Glomgold was just vibin, not sure what was going on but what else is new? And Buddy was twiddling his thumbs.</p><p>Ellie was the one to respond. She hoped Miss Glamour was onto something else so she wasn’t going to come clean just yet. “W-what do you mean, Miss Glamour?”</p><p>“Well for starters, Ellie, you are in fact, not married to my idiotic son, and are not Gloria’s sister. You and Boyd are also robots for some reason? Gloria, you and Gyro are also not married, but that’s a good thing. You all also lied about being millionaires and owning high end companies. Did I leave anything out that any of you would like to come clean about for themselves?” Miss glamour ended by sipping some wine like the classy bitch she was.</p><p>Boyd gulped. “...how did you figure all that out, Grandma Glamour?” </p><p>“I knew the whole goddamn time, I just wanted to see how far it would go. I know my son could never get an actual family so I made Falcon do a bit of digging around. Also you are not my grandson so stop calling me that.” That was not an “it” thing to say but Miss Glamour wasn’t aware of that. </p><p>Boyd started tearing up and Ellie placed a hand on his shoulder, shooting Glamour a look. </p><p>Gyro started stirring his wine with his finger like he did on that date with Gloria all that time ago. “...then why did you let us in? You hate commoners and robots.” </p><p>“Entertainment I guess. All of you were really good coming up with your little stories, I'm quite impressed… but not impressed enough to find that an “it”.”</p><p>Glomgold started eating his boogers again. “Can we still crash with you or wot?” </p><p>Glamour sighed and took her sunglasses off long enough to reply. “I don’t give a shit. This mansion is so big I don’t think I would notice one way or another.”</p><p>“Miss Glamour,” Ellie was reluctant to speak up again but felt like it needed to be said. “I promise my Uncle, my son and I will leave as soon as Mark recovers from his coma.” To be honest she didn’t even know if he would at all. She’d be willing to get a job if she was considered an actual citizen and had social security. And you know damn well Glomgold won’t step up. His new job was eating his own snot. </p><p>Glamour scoffed. “Of course he’s still in a coma. He’s always been lazy.”</p><p>Nobody knew how to respond to that so the table just went silent until Graves finally served the food. </p><p>“FINALLY!” Glomgold grabbed the wrong fork and started stabbing his food, missing his mouth half the time and having the food fall on his lap. Some even hit Boyd who was stuck next to him. </p><p>“So Miss Glamour,” Gloria finally broke the silence, “Do you want to come with us to the hospital? Ellie and Boyd are going to visit Mark for a few hours.”</p><p>Miss Glamour scoffed. “Gloria, I still view you as an it so it hurts me to turn down your offer. But why in the absolute hell would I want to see my son? Maybe if he was a girl I’d care a bit more. His whole life he’s been nothing but a dissapointment and he was stupid enough to get himself stabbed in order to save a robot. He’s only successful because I gave him a small loan of a million dollars to get the fuck out of my mansion. And what did he do? Cheated and scammed his way to success.” </p><p>Ellie frowned, taking great offense to her unneeded attack on Mark. “Miss Glamour, he was just trying to get the attention he never received as a child. He only wanted to feel loved.” </p><p>“Well it was his fault to look to his mother for unconditional love and support.” She took another sip of her wine.</p><p>Gloria, not wanting Ellie to get kicked out of the mansion, decided to change the subject like the hero she was. “Wow, um, this is really good, bitch! What a lovely choice for a meal. Mmmmm!” </p><p>“Eh, it’s okay. It contains gluten and way too many calories.” Gyro whispered to her. </p><p>Miss Glamour heard that. “Fuck you, Gyro. Gloria needs to find someone else.” She finally stood up, giving Falcon a look to take her plate. “I’m going to the hot tub. Feel free to join me if you wish, Gloria. No one else is invited.” </p><p>They all watched her leave.</p><p>This was finally Glomgold’s chance. He turned to Ellie. “Do you think I can try to eat the Roomba now?” </p><p>“Uncle Glomgold-”</p><p>“THANKS, COOL ROBO-NIECE!” Hopping off his chair, Glomgold cockroach crawled away. </p><p>Ellie turned to Boyd. “Do you mind watching your Uncle for me? To make sure he doesn’t damage anything significant. I need to speak with both Gyro and Gloria.” </p><p>“Okay! I don’t want my roomba friend to be eaten, even if I can’t speak to him very well.” Boyd hugged her before running off after his Uncle who insisted he was actually a Grandfather because Glomgold didn’t know how family trees worked. </p><p>Gloria, Gyro, and Ellie sat in silence as Falcon took their plates away. Ellie’s was obviously untouched so he started eating it while cleaning up. Dude liked his own cooking. </p><p>“What’s up, Ellie?”</p><p>She sighed. “I am sorry, I should have brought this up sooner but I think it’s about time we discuss the situation with Boyd…” She started, specifically talking to Gyro. “When Mark and I were imprisoned together, he told me you were the one who built him, Gyro.” </p><p>“He told you?” He was surprised that Mark actually admitted to it. He just figured it was something else that he had to bring up again. Maybe Mark wasn’t as stupid as he thoug- no nevermind, he was.</p><p>“Yes. I am not sure why he did and I also don’t know why he lied about it but I decided not to question his reasoning. It is safe to assume he lied unintentionally due to his low IQ or because he wanted to protect his pride.” That sounded like an insult but Ellie wasn’t aware it came off that way. She was just stating facts. “I promise I would have never adopted him if I knew you were technically his father. Or inventor, I suppose. I did not realize how much you were hurting sooner, but I’ve been studying you the past few weeks and all I can say is I’m sorry. You were clearly negatively affected by it and I looked past it. I’m in the wrong and he shouldn’t be in my custody.” She paused for a second, trying to find her words. “You are the one who should be raising him. I can tell how much you love him. I did not bring it up sooner because I was just… scared.” </p><p>Gyro was quiet for a while before he finally spoke up. “Yes, I do love him and I know you do as well. I’m actually kind of relieved that Mark told you. I didn’t want to be the one to tell you about Boyd’s origins.  But why are you bringing this up? Are you trying to ask me something?”</p><p>“Well, no. I just- he should be living with you, not me. I have no right to be his mother or to take him away from you.” She stopped looking at Gyro and focused on her lap instead.</p><p>Gloria was concerned for both Ellie and Gyro. “Wait Ellie, so what are you going to do?”</p><p>“I am not sure but neither of you should be concerned about that. That’s something for me to figure out.” </p><p>“Have you talked to Boyd about any of this?” Gyro asked. </p><p>“No. I found it to be too serious of a subject for him.” Ellie said. “But he loves you so much. It must have hurt him quite a lot to be mean to you on behalf of Mark. I didn’t know how talented of an actor he is.” She finally looked back up at Gyro, just for a moment. “But why did you keep it a secret? You were the one who told him not to say anything, correct?” </p><p>“Yes. I told him to keep it a secret because there was too much to unfold and it was bad timing. I figured it would’ve been an easier life for him at the time if he pretended that he didn’t know me.”</p><p>“By leaving him in Mark and I’s hands? You hate us and we’re clearly terrible parents. I won’t deny that. I could not protect Boyd no matter how hard I tried.”</p><p>Gyro sighed and rubbed his forehead. “Alright, I’m only going to say this once… You are not a terrible parent to Boyd. Now, Mark on the other hand…” Gyro trailed off. “But you Ellie? You’ve always been there to look after him. You’ve always been a good mother to him.” Gyro sighed again “That being said, I am not opposed to the idea of you being his mother. I think you need him as your son as much as Boyd needs a mother. All I ask is that I am able to see Boyd from time to time.” Gyro also still believed that Ellie was still evil but he did notice that she was never evil when she was around Boyd. Because of that, it wouldn’t hurt for her to have Boyd around.</p><p>Ellie stayed silent for a minute. “That’s very kind of you Gyro but you have seen what I’ve done. I’ve killed so many people. Even if it was to protect others, Boyd shouldn’t be being raised by a murderer. I was a villain for half of my life… and we live with Glomgold…” Ellie paused. That was a whole other story. “You on the other hand live a normal and happy life with Gloria. Wouldn’t it be better for Boyd to be around that? I do not even know if it’s right for him to see me anymore, as much as I love him. I completely lost it with Steelbeak, Gyro. You saw me after I killed him. I’m still struggling mentally; what if I for some reason lose it around him?” </p><p>“I don’t think you would ever “lose it around him”. He appears to stabilize you. Him being the ying to your yang, programming wise. It’s my theory that your programming and his harmonize in a sense. You tend to be better when you’re around him, correct?”</p><p>Never having thought about it like that, Ellie had no idea how to answer. Plus Gyro just admitted he thought she was batshit so that was nice of him. “I suppose…” </p><p>“Well, despite the fact Boyd will have to be around Glomgold and Mark a lot more than I would have ever hoped, I trust that he will be in good hands with you there to protect him.”</p><p>“Thank you, Gyro.” Ellie smiled warmly. “I guess all I can say is that if you ever want to see him or spend a few days with him, you’re welcome to. And you’re also welcome to take him into custody without asking if you believe I put him in danger.” </p><p>“I doubt it would ever come to that.” He sort of lied. “But thank you. As long as I get to see Boyd, I’m happy.”</p><p>“OY!” Glomgold busted in through the door. “MEH GRANDSON WON’T LET ME EAT THE ROOMBA! I’M BORED SO LETS BOUNCE!” </p><p>Boyd was hugging the roomba close to his chest so Glomgold couldn’t get a hold of it. He gently placed it back on the floor and watched it move away, cleaning the floors. “Yeah, I wouldn’t mind going to the hospital now if that’s fine with you.”</p><p>“Of course.” Ellie was never going to deny Boyd a visit to Mark, but she would be lying if she said it made her uncomfortable every time they went. She tried to avoid it as much as possible, not because she was mad at Mark but because she was guilty he was stabbed because of her. Also he just looked...dead. </p><p>Gyro turned to Gloria. “Yeah. It wouldn’t hurt to visit Fenton too. All he does is crosswords all day.” </p><p>She shook her head in disbelief  “Bless him…”</p><p>Buddy cleared his throat. Yes he was there the whole time. We forgot about him too. “Yeah so I’m not really needed anymore for the plot so I’m just going to join a frat house I guess. Nice knowing you guys.” He did a peace sign before leaving through the back.</p><p>Glomgold was already at the main door, jiggling on the door knob that for some reason wouldn’t budge when he pushed on it. “THIS STUPID THING WON’T OPEN!” It was a pull door. Not push. “CAN WE GO TO THE MCDUCK MANOR! I NEED TO KILL SCROOGE BECAUSE YOU HAVEN’T NOTICED, I STILL HAVEN’T DONE THAT!” </p><p>“Sure.” Gloria lied just to keep him happy until they got to the hospital. It was the worst when he whined in the car. It was like his mental age went down after losing his mansion and “god-like powers”. </p><p>Ellie carefully picked Glomgold up and off the door so she could open it for him. When he saw that the door was a pull and not a push he blinked stupidly. “Oh… I see.” He grumbled before knocking her out of the way to leave the mansion first.</p><p>Everyone started walking out one by one with Gloria leaving last. She yelled out to Miss Glamour “WE’RE LEAVING, BITCH!” before closing the door behind her.</p><p>Hopefully she heard her.</p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>“WOT?! WHY ARE WE AT THE HOSPITAL?!” Glomgold started kicking the back of the seat Gloria was in. “I WANT TO GO KILL SCROOOOOOOOGIE!” </p><p>Gloria turned around in her seat like a mother scolding a child on a long car trip. “Glomgold if you don’t stop kicking my chair, you’re going to be the next one checking into the hospital!”</p><p>Gyro laughed. “Yeah. Like you could hurt him.” He wasn’t implying Gloria was weak, just that Glomgold was literally impossible to kill. </p><p>“Uncle Glomgold.” Ellie said. “I hope you do not mind, but it would be best if you stayed in the lobby. I do not want you chewing on Mark’s respirator this time.” </p><p>“NOOOOOOOOO! I WANNA SEE A HOSPITAL PATIENT!” Glomgold kicked Gloria’s chair again. </p><p>“...maybe you can see Fenton. Right, Gloria?” </p><p>“Like hell he’s staying with us! Let’s just lock the car and leave him in here! Hope the heat stroke gets him!”</p><p> </p><p>Ellie thought for a moment. “If you take him, I’ll promise to steal an old picture book of Mark for you. An entire one.” </p><p>“.... damnit I can’t say no to that.”</p><p>“Gloria… why are you doing this to me?” Gyro parked the car and ran his hands down his face. </p><p>“Shut up, Gyro! We are getting an entire book of blackmail material again Mark! That’s worth more than gold!”</p><p>As the two continued to banter, Ellie turned to Glomgold, holding up a child leash. “Stay still while I attach this to you, please. I do not want you to end up hurting the nurses like you did last time.” </p><p>Glomgold struggled against the child leash. “NOOOOOO I HATE THE LEASH!” </p><p>“If you behaved yourself you wouldn’t have to wear it.” Ellie would have never imagined in a million years she would be the one bossing and scolding her Uncle, not the other way around like in Agartha. How the turns have tabled. </p><p>“BUT I DO BEHAVE MYSELF! THE NURSE LAST TIME HAD IT COMING AND SHE KNOWS IT!”</p><p>It took some time but Ellie was finally able to get the child leash around Glomgold. Gyro, Gloria and Boyd were already outside the car waiting on the two of them to get out.</p><p>“Uncle Glomgold you are acting like a child! I know you are better than this!” She actually didn’t. She dragged him over to Gloria, handing her the leash. “Here you go.” </p><p>Glomgold started cockroach crawling around Gloria, tangling her up in the leash, “YOOH CAN’T TELL ME WHAT TO DO, DAMNIT!” </p><p>Gloria started to untangle herself. “Ellie, why don’t you and Boyd just go ahead and go inside. We’ll meet up with you back at the car.”</p><p>Ellie nodded and left with Boyd immediately. She needed a break from Glomgold after having him sleep in the same bed as her against her will for 2 months. He almost crushed Boyd a few times. </p><p>Gloria finally got herself untangled from the child leash and immediately tied Glomgold to the car door handle with a super tight knot that she learned during her time as a Junior Woodchuck. “There. Now he’ll be out of our hair and we get the blackmail book!” Gloria turned to look at Gyro. “See?”</p><p>“You may just have a higher IQ than me.” He lied, but Gloria deserved the fake compliment. “This is why I love you.” </p><p>“OY! YOOH JUST GONNA LEAVE ME HERE?!” Glomgold started gnawing at the leash. “IT’S A MILLION DEGREES OUTSIDE! AN YOUNG MAN LIKE ME CANNAE HANDLE THIS HEAT!” </p><p>Gloria ignored him and started walking towards the hospital with Gyro, holding hands. “Then perish.”</p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>“Heyyyyy Fenton!!!!” Gloria chimed, busting open the door. Gyro was out of breath, barely being able to keep up with her.</p><p>Fenton looked up from his crossword puzzle and smiled. “Heya! I haven’t seen you two since yesterday! How are you guys doing?” </p><p>Just so you can get an idea of the room, Fenton had a perfect view of the capitol building where Glomgold and Steelbeak’s statues stood. A reminder of how he almost died. </p><p>“Better than you are.” Gloria pulled up a chair and sat next to Fenton’s bed. Gyro did the same. “The most important question is how are you doing, Fenton?”</p><p>“Ah, I believe i’m getting better everyday! The doctors believe that I’ll be able to leave in about a week!” Fenton smiled. “And I think I’m going to take those paid days off, Gyro.” </p><p>“Your ''paid days off” are being used to cover your medical bills.”</p><p>“Oh… well guess I’ll have to take unpaid days off.”</p><p>“To do what?” Gloria asked.</p><p>“And that’s what I’m going to tell you!” He took a pamphlet off of the side table and handed it to Gloria. “I think I deserve a well needed vacation. A month long Carribean Cruise sounds nice, right? Relaxing on beaches sounds like a great way to continue recovering.”</p><p>“Aw Fenton that sounds so great! Treat yo’ self!” Gloria skimmed through the pamphlet long enough to just look at the pictures. Gyro snatched it from her when she was done.</p><p>“That’s funny. I’ve been eyeing this baby for awhile.” </p><p>“You? Wanting a Carribean Cruise vacation?”</p><p>Gyro smirked. “After everything that we’ve been through? Yes. You have no idea how many paid days off I have saved up over the years.” He turned to Gloria, an idea coming to mind. “Hey. Maybe we should go together in a few months or something! It’s almost summer; peak cruise season.”</p><p>Fenton frowned. It looked like work was coming with him now. </p><p>Gloria beamed “Oh my god yeah that would be so much fun!”</p><p>He took her hand. “We definitely deserve some time together. We’ve been on only like, what? Two dates?” </p><p>Fenton continued to just watch. He hoped Gloria would deny his offer but it looked like to be a lost cause for him. It’s not like he had anything against the two of them! But this guy really needed a break! He would bet his entire GizmoDuck suit that if he and Gyro were on the same cruise, he would give him work to do while abroad.</p><p>“Yeah and the first one involved Ellie and Mark fighting and the second time involved Steelbeak… God.”</p><p>Gyro continued looking through the pamphlet. “I’ll book the tickets for August. We’re going.” </p><p>Fenton mumbled to himself  “Aw man, that’s when I was going to go…”</p><p>Handing back the pamphlet to Fenton, Gyro cleared his throat. “Thanks for bringing it up. If you’re going, not only would I be able to be with Gloria more, but we’ll be able to continue our work.” </p><p>Guess he’s keeping the GizmoDuck suit. And it only took him 30 seconds to do so. “Yayyyyyyy.” Fenton faked a smile. He would have more of a vacation at this point if he just stayed in Duckburg. Yeah. He’d do that. Or maybe go to Cincinnati for a bit. OOh. That sounded even better. His cousins lived in Cincinnati! </p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>“...and now mom has to keep Uncle Glomgold on a leash.” Boyd sat on a stool, holding an unconscious Mark’s hand as he went on and on about what was going on in their lives. Ellie sat in the corner of the room, reading one of the many magazines that contained only beauty advertisements and gossip about celebrities. She hated it but wanted to keep herself distracted somehow.</p><p>“You know how I said I couldn’t speak to the Roomba? Well I still can’t, but I figured out it has a conscience. I think I was able to nonverbally communicate with it to warn it about Uncle Glomgold. Uncle Glomgold has been wanting to eat everything lately…” Boyd trailed off and sat in silence for a while, still holding onto Mark’s hand. “I just want you to know that I forgive you, dad. I shouldn’t have said what I said at the bowling alley. I didn’t know how much you cared about mom until you saved her…” Boyd started tearing up. “We all have our flaws and you were trying to be the best dad you could. You even said you wanted to be a better dad and learn how to cook which proves it! Dr. Gearloose has been keeping me company and I love him… but I love you a lot too. I’m sorry I made you think otherwise.” Boyd had started sobbing at this point. “Mom and I forgive you. We just want you to come back. The doctors said it doesn't look good… but please continue fighting. We want you back.” Boyd hugged Mark and started crying on his shoulder. </p><p>Ellie was now beside Boyd and laid a hand on his shoulder. “There is a chance he can hear you, Boyd.” She whispered before rubbing his back. “It’s good that you’re talking to him. I am sure he loves hearing all of your stories and everything you have to say.” </p><p>The room fell silent again with the exception of Boyd who was still crying into Mark’s shoulder. He finally turned around and clung onto Ellie, burying his face into her button up shirt. </p><p>She froze for a second before hugging him back. “...Maybe it is best we leave for today. How does ice cream sound?” </p><p>Boyd let go of her and rubbed his eyes. “Alright…” He moved the stool he was sitting on back to where it was originally placed before meeting back with Ellie.</p><p>She took his hands. “We can come back tomorrow. You can pick out some flowers for him and perhaps a new phone.” </p><p>“..... a …. new…. phone?” </p><p>Both Boyd and Ellie jumped before quickly turning their heads to look at where Mark was. Mark’s eyes were still closed but they could see his fingers move… as if he was tweeting something with an air phone?</p><p>Neither of them were consciously thinking this… but the word “phone” was probably what woke Mark up. Of course.</p><p>“DAD?!”</p><p>Ellie ran over to Mark and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Mark? Mark, can you hear us?!” She told Boyd there was a possibility Mark could hear them but boy oh boy was she fibbing. </p><p>“Ellie?” Mark’s eyes were struggling to open. With what little vision he had, it was very blurry. He held one of his hands in the air towards her.</p><p>Ellie slapped that shit away and hugged him instead. “I was so scared you were never going to wake up!” She cried.</p><p>Boyd ran up to the side of the bed to see his dad as best as he could despite Ellie hugging him. He took Mark’s hand again to let him know that he was there too. “Are you really awake?!” </p><p>Mark squeezed Boyd’s hand in response. “Yee…”</p><p>Boyd smiled, genuinely this time. He wiped the rest of his tears away and squeezed his dad’s hand harder.</p><p>Ellie released Mark from her tight hug to look at him. He was still squinting, clearly still not able to see very well. “Do you remember anything that happened?” </p><p>“Steelbeak…. Is he…?” Mark trailed off. He was starting to get some of his eyesight back but the fluorescent lights were not helping.</p><p>Ellie laughed and nodded. “Yes. I killed that bitch.” She didn’t care that Boyd was in the room or that it was something she would never say. Mark needed to hear it.</p><p>He sighed in relief. “Ellie, Boyd, I’m so sorry. For everything.”</p><p>“Didn’t you hear anything I said?” Boyd asked. “We forgive you. It’s okay!” </p><p>Ellie laid a hand on his cheek. “Do not worry about it, Mark. Saving my life was enough of an apology.” She paused for a second. “And I accept your offer of going to family therapy.” </p><p>Boyd let go of Mark’s hand and rushed to the door. “I’ll go tell one of the doctors that you’re awake! Maybe you’ll get to go home soon!” He left before either of them could reply.</p><p>Ellie looked back at Mark. “Are you in pain?” </p><p>Mark thought about it for a moment. “My chest?” He couldn’t move his head down to see the damage.</p><p>She sighed, continuing to rub her thumb on his cheek. “I have to say your IQ level is very low. Jumping in front of me was the most idiotic decision you have ever made.” She hugged him again. “But being unintelligent is a lovely thing for once. You saved my life. Thank you.”</p><p>Mark smiled and weakly wrapped one arm around Ellie. “It’s what I do best.”</p><p>Gyro knocked on the door, Gloria behind him. “Sorry to disturb you Ellie, but Gloria and I should probably check on Glomgold for… reasons.” </p><p>Still hugging Mark, Ellie looked at them as best as she could manage. “He’s awake.” She smiled. </p><p>“Oh shit, really?” Gloria moved past Gyro to get a better look.</p><p>Ellie let go of Mark and turned to Gloria. “He just woke up a minute ago! Boyd is getting a doctor as we speak.” </p><p>Gyro was still chilling in the background. He still fucking hated Mark so whatever. </p><p>Gloria smiled “Hey that’s pretty cool! Good on you for… waking up?” She shrugged and walked back to Gyro. “Alright well we are going back to the car but take your time! See ya in a bit!” Gloria didn’t mean to be rude but they needed a head start so they could deal with Glomgold who was still tied to the car.</p><p>A doctor rushed into the room, alongside a nurse and Boyd. “Mr. Beaks, are you awake?” He needed to hear it for himself. Ellie took a step back as the medics came to his side. </p><p>Mark made a surfer gesture “Ye.”</p><p>That was the stupidest greeting the doctor had ever gotten from a patient that had woken up from a coma. He sighed and turned to both Ellie and Boyd. “Okay. You two should leave; we need to start doing tests and make sure he’s okay. We’ll give you a call when it’s safe to come back.”</p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p><p>“Oh shit…” Gloria muttered as the two stared at the old minivan.</p><p>All that remained attached to the car handle was a torn off child leash. Glomgold escaped and at this point, he could be anywhere!</p><p>“GOD!” Gyro started pulling at his hair and hyperventilating. “What are we going to do!? Ellie is going to kill us!” </p><p>“Kill you for what?” Ellie said. She walked up from behind, holding Boyd’s hand.</p><p>“Um… Glomgold kind of…” Gloria trailed off, hoping the broken child leash could speak for itself. </p><p>Ellie put two and two together. “...you tied my Uncle to the car?” </p><p>“He didn’t seem to mind!” Gloria lied.</p><p>“I am sure he did.” Ellie snapped. “...but I do not think I can blame you…” </p><p>Boyd nodded. “...yeah. I get it. He smells kind of funny.”</p><p>Gyro sighed in relief. God, he made a good call keeping Boyd with Ellie. “Are we… just going to leave him behind? You know the man can’t die as well as I do.” </p><p>Ellie nodded. “That would probably be best. He reminds me of a feral cat. He wanders around until he is in need of food and eventually finds his way back. It has happened a few times already… I was just hoping to prevent it…” She sighed. “He was gone for a week last time. He showed back up at Miss Glamour’s with a dead rat in hand.” </p><p>“I want to read his autobiography someday.” Gloria nodded, very impressed.</p><p>The four stood in silence for a minute as they listened to the sound of screaming and cars crashing in the distance. It was definitely Glomgold but none of them wanted to deal with it. </p><p>“Would you two mind driving us back to Miss Glamour’s? The doctors are tending to Mark at the moment and we had to leave.” </p><p>“Yeah.” Gyro got into the driver’s seat and took the crew back to Miss Glamour’s house, avoiding the roads where screaming was being heard. AKA avoiding Glomgold and whatever the hell he was getting himself mixed up with this time.</p><p>~Gyro’s minivan rode into the sunset~</p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p>
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<a name="section0036"><h2>36. Act 3</h2></a>
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    <p>Act 3 of Journey to Agartha is now up on my page! Check it out!</p><p>
  
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  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Updates will be every Sunday and Wednesday!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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